Whoopsie, Thanksgiving and All of November Went By Fast!

Happy Thanksgiving! Hehe :)

Sorry I haven't posted in a month; I took part in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).  I succeeded in finishing a 50,000 word novel ... well, it's really only a novella so far, but maybe it will be a novel someday. I got this: 

In early November, I gave the cutest little 1-year old in the world this:

It is Stella, by Linden Down, knit out of Knit Picks Comfy Fingering Weight yarn, a 75% cotton, 25% acrylic fiber. The color is called Hollyberry. It called out for some sparkle, so I added beads to the lace yoke and chose sparkly rhinestone buttons. It is very festive!

But, it almost didn't get made.   I started knitting it at the end of July, got down to the sleeves (it is knit from the top down), took the sleeve stitches off, and stopped. I decided at that point to look through the comments that other people who had knit it said. I expected them to say, "This is such a cute sweater!!!!!!" but no. Argggghhhhhh! Everyone said, "The neck is too big!"

I didn't really look at the neck, but once I did, I had to say, they were right. It was too big! Why didn't I read the comments before knitting so far? I really didn't want to unravel the whole thing and start over, even though I had time. Plus, I was mad for not reading the comments.  So I did the logical thing: I put it in a bag and threw it into The Chest of No Return, thinking it was a good color for socks maybe, after I got over being mad. I went on to knit other things, like an alpaca vest and a cowl. And while I knit, I thought about it, thought of different ways to fix it. 

I determined to set about remedying the sweater. I cut one stitch and unpicked the neck just above the increases for the lace yoke pattern (this included taking off the row for the top buttonhole).

 I put the stitches back on the needle, and knit the buttonhole row on the first row of knitting -- k 2, yo, k2tog, k1, then k2tog across the row til the last 5 sts, k5. Then I did 4 garter ridges, and bound off. 

If I had it to do over again, I think I would have done k1, k2tog across instead of k2 tog across. K2tog across made it a little bit too small and made the lace pucker too much, but it looks ok. It would look better with a few more stitches.

But, the sweet little girl and her mommy love it, and I love that it turned out okay!

The Daily Mindfulness Blanket is waiting until I pick it up again. I haven't worked on it for the last month. I will pick it up again tomorrow, I promise.