Baby Crossover Coat...Again

I love this pattern -- I've been working on it and have the 6-9 month size worked out pretty well, I hope. On my first go-around this time I saw the sleeves had puckered and were very tight. I'd picked up the stitches at the shoulder very firmly, crossing the loops. Big mistake. So I took apart the sweater, frogged the sleeves and began again, picking up many fewer and making the sleeves longer.

Machine Knitting Is Not For Me

What a relief -- I've tried and decided not to pursue yet another fiber habit! Yayyyyy! Last weekend I took a lovely, well-run and presented workshop "Introduction to Machine Knitting" at Peters Valley Craft Center, my favorite fiber learning center. Frances Collier did a lovely job of teaching us how to use no-longer manufactured Brother machines. As invited to, I'd brought my own machine, purchased a couple of summers ago at the North Country Spinners Sell & Swap Day. I bought it from a most reliable friend. But, I'd never used it.
My father, always entranced by any machine that made things, had bought a machine at the PX when I was little. I'd learned to use it but didn't really know what to make with it. In those days I didn't have a stash, for one thing. So I was intrigued to try again.
By noon of the first day of the workshop I knew I was going to leave my machine with one of the young fiber artists also taking the class!
It just isn't my cup of tea. The repetitive, noisy motion would interfere with any audiobook enjoyment and perhaps cause injury? And I don't like the fabric -- it looks like something I'd buy in Walmart, if I ever did buy anything there. Even after Fran felted some of our stuff, I knew I would never use it. And, I love the extra room in the house now that it's gone! It was about 40" wide and had all its parts except the metal hook attaching the ribbing element to the knitting handle whoosie thing. It was a really good experience, actually, to cross something off the list!

Grandmother's Delight

In April 2009 I finished an EZ Baby Surprise Jacket for my grandson [the post is at http://lizasfibers.blogspot.com/2009/04/ezs-baby-surprise-jacket.html]. The next fall [see post http://lizasfibers.blogspot.com/2009/11/ez-baby-surprise-altered-and-mittens-to.html] I lengthened the sleeves as my grandson was growing out of it and the short sleeves of this design weren't working for him. The only comment from the recipient's mother at the time was a lesson on how to use color better when knitting. And yesterday the recipient's father advised me on the errors I had made knitting the buttonholes; his fingers had trouble getting the [adorable vehicular] novelty buttons through without catching the yarn.

To my eternal delight yesterday I learned that until very recently said grandson had adored this sweater. Despite his parents' protestations he insisted on wearing it and until the last possible moment. I could tell 'cause the last button hole was pulled out of shape and he's not in the tubby department.

My grandson has a new baby sister thus the sweater will shortly have a new wearer. So Granny nabbed the sweater, assured the mother she didn't care if it needed washing and took it home to work on. We will look for big round buttons to make it easier for granddaughter's dad's big fingers to button it on her. And, I will put the charming vehicular buttons on a new sweater for my grandson. (See the first link for a view of the buttons or my Ravelry page.)

I sit here grinning in the knowledge -- two years after I finished it -- that the little person I made the jacket for loved it. It's all worth it.

P.S. My D.B. had no problem maneuvering the buttons in and out of the button holes as neither did I. Just checking....