Hubbie Hoodie in action

I have yet to do a proper photo shoot of Drew wearing his hoodie. With all of the craziness of our upcoming move, I'm not sure when said photo shoot will take place. But the important thing is that he is wearing it. In fact, he's worn it quite a bit. I think he knows that if he doesn't wear this sweater, there will be no more hand knit sweaters for him ever, just as there certainly will be no more hats (made two, he never wears them). It does appear, however, that he genuinely like this sweater, which makes me breath a big sigh of relief. I believe I see a cardigan in his future...

My two boys, saying "cheers" over glasses of vitamin water. A not-so-great shot, but I couldn't resist a candid picture in which they both happen to be wearing the sweaters I knit for them.

Blocking

Silas thought all the hoodie needed to be complete was a bit of paint (pretend paint, thankfully).

Finally, we are at the last stage of the Hubbie Hoodie (aka the Hacky Sack Hoodie). Blocking is absolutely essential to the fit of this garment, as the gauge given in the pattern is post blocking, and quite in contrast to the pre-blocking gauge achieved when knitting. This stark difference in gauge is one of the only thing I don't like about this pattern, which is otherwise pretty cool.

I am still nervous to try it on Drew. But, it turns out that that moment will have to wait a bit longer. I forgot to cover it and the cat used if for a nap after coming in from the muddy wilds. Damn it. It will need to be cleaned and possibly re-blocked.

Pictures of the finished product, hopefully by this weekend.

Nothing much to share, except...

...pictures of our new house! We close on March 22nd and so far, everything with the sale has gone smoothly. But it's still a hectic time, and my knitting is suffering as a result. I should have finished Drew's hoodie a while ago, but after completing the sleeves, he said he would like them to be an inch and a half longer. This was a reasonable request and easy enough to execute. I could have fixed them both that very same day. But did I? Nope. Instead, I put the sweater down and didn't knit for a week, which may be the longest I've gone without knitting, well, since I taught myself how to knit in 2002. I am going to attribute this behavior of mine to new house/first-time home buyer jitters and not judge myself too harshly. Today I ripped out the ribbing on one of the sleeves and began to add on that inch and a half. So, all is not lost, and his hoodie will be completed before we change addresses at the end of next month.

But you don't really care about that stinking hoodie do you? You want to see more pictures of the new digs right? Here's the blog post from my family blog relating more info about it. And here's the direct link to the flickr photo stream. Enjoy :)

The new year is old news...

...and I'm finally posting to this blog for the first time this decade. I'm in a wee bit of a knitting lull. Drew's Hubbie Hoodie (Hackie sack hoodie from Son of a Stitch n' Bitch) really could have been done by now. It's easy-peasy, mindless knitting. But even after the holiday knitting came and went along with my excuse for not hurrying the hell up on this project, I still haven't been giving it the time it deserves. Today, Sunday, I didn't knit at all. Not on the ferry to Seattle, not at Drew's poetry reading, not in the car on the way back. Not even while watching Julie & Julia this evening. What's wrong with me? This is the perfect project for me right now too because it uses next to no brain cells and is therefore an anxiety-buster, rather than the headache-inducer a more complex project might be.

That's not to say that I haven't made any progress. I'm almost to the front pocket, and mind you, this is a top-down project so the hood is already completed. There is really no reason not to finish this project post-haste. I will let you know when that occurs, hopefully before another decade draws to a close.

As you can see, a certain toddler is my biggest (and best!) excuse for my knitting lull, though he does occasionally indulge me by letting me get a few rows in during cuddle time :)