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 :)