M. Likes Broccoli!

I gave M. broccoli last night for the first time. I had steamed some and gave her little bits and not only did she try it, but she liked it and had seconds! I was truly amazed ... I only eat broccoli because I know I should because it is good for me. She also had some corn and brown rice. This morning it was Cheerios and cherries. I am so lucky that so far she is a very good eater.

Ok, so you'd like to know about my Olympic fail? Here goes:

For my dad's birthday, I decided to make Alice Starmore's Na Craga for him. We picked out the yarn (Cascade 220) before I found the right pattern, though, so the gauge wasn't the same. Also, the sweater, as designed, is drop shouldered and baggy, not the look my dad goes for... he's 5'8", baggy just isn't good. So, I figured with that in mind, I would just start knitting the smallest size and work up to the arm holes (where I was going to make a modified drop sleeve) and then see how that fit him when I went to visit in August. So, I worked on the sweater for a while. I started thinking, at some point, that it might be a little small. So, with a new ball of yarn, I started knitting again, but the next size up. I finished that skein of yarn and took both the pieces to California.

Oh, I started at the very beginning with a sleeve, but the increases were too rapid in the pattern, so instead of dealing with it, I decided to wait to do the sleeves until the front and back were done.

Apparently, I think my dad is about the size of a 16 year old boy. Maybe I think he's 18. Anyway, the point is that both the smaller and medium sized "swatches" I did were too small. By a lot. Ugh. So, I did some figuring and some calculating based on these pieces I did. I decided I would just add more side panel repeats since they were not so dense and would be more flattering than adding more cable-y repeats. Figured out what I should be casting on and started knitting, ripping out the medium size as I knit.

I should point out that somewhere in there the Ravelympics sign ups happened and I signed up for WIP (Work in Progress) Wrestling for Team Rubberneckers. The rules stated that for other projects the only thing you could knit of your item before the opening ceremonies was a gauge swatch. It was around the time of the opening ceremonies that I discovered that what I had knit really was just a gauge swatch, and the WIP Wrestling wasn't really where I belonged, but that was ok, I would plow forward.

So, I knit and knit the new size. As I was knitting, I took a look at it and thought, gee, it's kind of big. But, considering I had thought the other size was just fine and it was too small, I thought I just had a skewed idea of size; I continued knitting. When I almost finished that first skein (again), I still thought it might be a little big, so I got out the tape measure and lo and behold, it was too big. In my calculations, I had forgotten that the side panels that had fewer stitches to the inch, which is precisely why they were less dense. I needed to drop a repeat on each side. Grrr.

Once again, I casted on and knit; this time there was enough of the skein left that I could do a couple repeats of the ribbing before taking the old panel off the needles and ripping back. There was a little more fussing and such, but now, well after the Olympics are over, I'm on my way to a sweater of the right size.

The Na Craga is a drop saddle shoulder, which, as I have mentioned was not ideal. I had planned on doing a modified-drop saddle, however, in Ann Budd's book of sweater patterns, her saddle shoulder is worked on a set in sleeve! It is perfect, and the side panels will be easy to make work with a set in sleeve.

Sorry, I don't even know if that made sense. Here's a picture of the Bean to make up for it:

And Happy Birthday, Dad!!!