Back Again

We had a happy but strenuous weekend with our friends -- no blogging. But I kept knitting, at least a little bit. The result appears (I hope) above. I am nearly finished with the Wallaby pouch. I should polish that off this evening, and resume knitting the body. I have decided to press ahead with this little sweater and get it finished before resuming the Fair Isle jacket. Fergus can have it for a Christmas present.

On stitch numbers: I picked up 76 for the pouch. It went well, with that row of purl bumps. Adjusting by percentage didn't seem to work, for reasons too tedious to explain, so I found a size in the Wallaby pattern leaflet which had 76 stitches in the pouch (adult 34" chest, it was) and followed those instructions. It's working OK, I think. The pouch will reach nearly to the armholes but that seems a reasonable arrangement for a two-year-old.

I love, love, love the yarn. The next time I am in a yarn shop I will see if Rowan 4-ply soft is to be had in less alarming colours. Maybe yet another EPS sweater, for myself, striped in two colours... I think what I really love, is merino wool, which this is. I've done a lot of knitting with merino yarn this year -- a couple of Koigu projects, and two in Louet Gems Merino.

I-think-I-read-somewhere that the merino sheep doesn't live happily in Britain, although it's hard to see why. It can't be the cold, because Morehouse Farm, famous for merino, is in New York State, which is colder even than Perthshire. Maybe the damp.

Good news: Theo's Koigu sweater has reached Connecticut safely. Theo himself with be with Senator Kerry for the victory party (or the wake) in Boston tonight, and will then go see his parents. So we should have a picture here soon. My sister, Theo's mother, said in an email yesterday that the sweater fits Theo's father, who is built on the same lines, so I think all is well.