Wow, both of my active projects are approaching the finishing stage. I finally finished the giraffe pocket for giranimals jacket #1 and managed to knit the small button band side of the asymmetrical front, which leaves only the large front panel to be knit. And the final steek has been cut on the first Dale bug sweater! I've begun binding off the shoulders to attach the sleeves. It's my first time using the three-needle bind off and I love, love, love it!

And now that I think about it, I've still got two old, long-neglected projects, native and elizabeth III, which are slowly becoming official unfinished objects. They will never get done if I don't somehow force myself to pick them up again, rip what's gone wrong, knit what's left and sew 'em up! So with all this finishing to be done and since all the other months seem to be dedicated to starting, I'm going to try to make February all about finishing. Here goes nothing: no new projects until these are done.

Exceptions: (You didn't really believe that up there did you?) I already started brown butter on Wednesday, therefore it's not really a new project and I could work on that. And technically speaking, the on-going giranimals and Dale bugs projects entail two sweaters each, so starting giranimals 2 or the second Dale bug sweater would also be kosher. But besides that no new projects. Come on people, that's still tough! That means no fuzzy feet felt-along for me. No Charlotte. No big, slouchy cardigan. No greensleeves. And no, no, no buying yarn for that as of yet undiscovered perfect project that I just know will turn up in a week or two.

I got a lot done over the weekend and have moved one step closer to my first february finished project. The last piece of giranimals is done - the funky asymmetrical front panel. Here is how the two front pieces fit together. Neat, huh? I laid everything out before blocking to see how it's gonna look. Becky seems to be at the same stage in our tweed jacket knit-along, but has been making some improvements to the pattern. Impressive!

So, how much do I love that little giraffe on the pocket? Well, check this out: hmm, cute jacket; oh yeah!

So all the pieces are done and being blocked now. Once the jacket is done blocking, I'll get out Elizabeth III and start blocking the front and back, which I finished reknitting in the Fall. Then those pieces can lay there staring at me as if to say, 'sleeves, woman; we neeeeed sleeeeeves'.

Elizabeth is still waiting (see yesterday), but the Dale sweater now has sleeves. Yippee! I wasn't sure of the exact seaming method that I should use, but I managed to copy Wendy and Flor's pictures well enough, I think. Here's the inside just after the sleeve was added and here's a picture after the little facing was sewn over the steek. I just love the little steek facing that Dale has you make. All that brutal cutting covered up so neatly: "Nothing to see here! Move along, folks." So here is the sweater now, getting closer and closer to being done.

I'm itching to start the next one!

Despite recent progress, both the bug sweater and giranimals #1 have a ways to go before they are done. I've got a ton of ends to weave in on both. The bug sweater still needs a neck and giranimals #1 has some tricky seaming and the pocket embroidery left to do. These won't be finished this week and I have to keep myself from getting all crazy trying to get them done real quick. So I've given myself a day to relax.

Relax yarn, that is. The front and the back of elizabeth III are blocking and I've ripped back the sleeves to the elbows in order to reknit them a bit smaller. Remember how big the sweater was when I finished it the first time?! Back then after I realized that she was way to big, I asked:

When does it become time to give up on a project? How many times are you willing to redo a garment that you really love to get it right? More specifically, what the heck should I do with my elizabeth I sweater?? The options are:

1. Just leave it and love it.

2. Redo the neck so that the emergency omigod-this-is-huge decreases are less visible and leave the rest, let's say, to drape very loosely.

3. Undo raglan seams, frog front, back and sleeves down to the armholes (again!) and try to math-up some smaller/shorter version of the top part. It would fit better around the bust and the shoulders, but the body would still not be form fitting at all.

4. Undo all seams, frog entire front and back, reknit them in the smaller size and frog the sleeves as necessary to have raglan decreases match.

5. Throw it in the back of the closet and never speak of it again.

I'm proud to say that I opted for number four - the most ambitious of the productive solutions. I was encouraged to see that others have made the choice to rip, like Theresa and Bonne Marie and most recently Melissa. Melissa's sweater was in Jaeger's fabulous Chamonix yarn. That yarn is so nice, you can't waste it on a sweater that you don't absolutely love. And that's the way I felt about elizabeth III, both the design and the yarn (Marks & Kattens Orkide). I can't just like this sweater; I have to be able to love it. I was reassured that I'd made the right choice the other night, while watching The Mexican on cable. Julia Roberts asks Brad Pitt: "When you really love someone, but it just isn't working out, when is enough enough." "Never." You said it, Brad. Now there's some good knitting advice from Julia Roberts!

And so the yarn is hanging in the bathroom working its kinks out, again. At least I know that it holds up to washing real well! No need for new pictures here, since it looks just like it did last fall: blocking and relaxing.

Still taking a break from all the finishing work on the boys' sweaters, I've been doing some actual knitting! Here is elizabeth back on the needles again. Right now I'm just getting into the raglan decreases on the first sleeve. The yarn coming out the side there shows you how far down I took out the seam. I ripped back to about an inch above that. There was a little bit of a line at the point where I ripped back and started reknitting, but I pressed it a bit and now it is hardly noticeable. In general I was able to recreate the gauge surprisingly well (close up pic here).

I've fallen in love with this yarn all over again. It is just a dream to work with, so smooth and soft. But I still don't know what I was thinking buying it in white! Where did I imagine I could wear this sweater? I hardly ever leave the house without the boys and when I'm at home, fuhgetaboutit! Maybe I can wear it to the Knitsmiths. Every week. Ha, ha.

Thankfully, I was much more sensible when choosing yarn for my husband's vest. The brown should be more forgiving and is really quite lovely. After starting the ribbing last Wednesday, I picked up the vest again last night and knitted enough so that it's on its way to looking more like the beginnings of something sweater-y than just some needles with a bit of yarn hanging off them.

I'm all done with the sleeves for elizabeth III. My Venus de Milo finally has her arms. She's now waiting alongside the bug sweater and the giranimals jacket in the pile for seaming and other various and sundry finishing touches. What to start, eh I mean finish, first??

I do enjoy a good dart. And here are some that I just made: elizabeth III has darts on front back and the arms (did I mention that I like darts?) and the bodice for the summer dress that I'm sewing (my first sewing project!) also has darts. It's not so easy to see but it ends at a little point on the bottom edge. This is the same piece that I posted last week with the pattern outline pinned to the fabric. Anyway, the darts were all I managed to do in sewing class last night. That was mostly because the next step looked complicated. Interfacing was involved. That's right, more ironing!

Ta-da! The first bug sweater is done. I was inspired to finally finish up this sweater after seeing the amazing Dale sweater that Kim just completed. And I made it through the tedious weaving in of ends by following Becky's sage advice about knitting and wine: "not such an undesirable mix". Oh yeah!

S really really likes the sweater. In fact he liked modelling it so much that it was hard to get a clear picture of both the sweater and him being happy about it! Here he was blurrily being excited about it right when I first put it on him. And here he was giving his mommy a little round of applause. Awwww.

For those of you wondering how I decide who gets which sweater, this time it was easy. Just a few days ago S said his first real word. You guessed it: car!

The prospect of a finish-along with Becky motivated me to pull giranimals out of the finish-me-now pile next. After doing a bit of seaming and early trying-on, I can tell that this is going to be waaay big for either of my boys to wear now. Which is good! These jackets were planned for next fall and I started them early just for the opportunity to knit along with Becky (cause she's so fun and talented and helpful...). So I was hoping that they would be large enough for the boys to grow into them. This one sure will be! I sewed up all the seams and then attached the neck with backstitch (cause that's the way they do it there in Phildar-land). I'd never done a neck that way, but Becky talked me through it and it came out looking pretty neat. What's left is the pocket, which is a big pain in the tushie! One little pocket with about a bazillion ends, then embroidery, and finally another tricky attaching moment. Gimme a day or two!

I couldn't help participating in ChicKnits' Monday Morning Mirth.

Meet Cap'n Swee'pea! Be afraid, be very afraid. Oh, and bring extra wipes!

Here's where you can build your own wrestler/superhero. And check out the one Squib made!

I've been doing so much finishing lately, I wanted to get back to a project where I was still in that exciting starting phase. So I spent some time on dressy, my first sewing project. I last worked on dressy in sewing class on Thursday, where I managed to get through step one of the sewing directions: make darts. Well, with the help of a few of the Knitsmiths (who also do some sewing!), I made it all the way to step four! Here's the front of the bodice now with the front band attached. Next comes the front of the skirt and then she should start looking like a dress (I hope!).

I had a bad, bad day yesterday, which I am pretty sure will continue over into today. I just couldn't muster up the energy last night to do any finishing work on the two sweaters waiting to be completed. I needed some simple, straight knitting to calm me down, so I picked up my husband's vest for some stockinette therapy. I'll probably need to spend some more time with it tonight to work through the stresses of today as well. I'll post a progress picture tomorrow.

Warm fuzzies = making progress on a project. And the stockinette therapy from the night before last brought me almost to the armhole openings on the back of my husband's vest. Daria wrote yesterday about that moment when the rows of stitches start to become a fabric before your eyes and how rewarding that is. It happened and it was good.

Warm fuzzies = cute animal faces on baby clothes. And here's a sneak peek at the giraffe on the first giranimals jacket. I'm almost done!!

Warm fuzzies = yarn arriving in the mail. And yesterday the rest of the Phildar Legende came that I need to make the second giranimals jacket. As I was needing some soothing, I cast right on and finished the ribbing on the back! Ooohh, alpaca.

Warm fuzzies = going to the yarn store. And so I went and visited all the lovely yarns at a good yarn and even bought a few of the fuzziest for a little friend. And for myself, I got these neat little sweater shaped double-pointed needle holders. Funny, huh?

Warm fuzzies = seeing my boys in their handmade sweaters. And since I still decide what they wear, I put their stripey vests on them yesterday. Cute, cute!

The first of the giranimals jackets is done! Chalk off another finished project for February Finishing Month. As I mentioned before I tried to make the jacket large enough so the boys can wear it next winter. No problem there, right B? Actual knitting time on this was just shy of two weeks and finishing time another two weeks! I've merrily begun knitting the second one, but am not relishing the idea of doing another pocket, pocket embroidery, or pocket placement. But, as you can see, this jacket is pretty much all about that pocket! It's got to be among the cutest things I've ever made! "Yea, cool pocket, ma!"

I made some progress on dressy, my first big sewing project. The front skirt panel is now attached to the front of the bodice, so it's finally starting to look like a dress. I couldn't get a good picture since it's so long - I'll have to wait on that until I can hang it up somehow. Anyway, except for the hem at the bottom, the front is finished. Comparing it to knitting, I'm guessing that I've done the equivalent of completing the back of a sweater, since the front of this dress is the easiest part with the simplest shaping and styling. The back is made up of more parts and has a zipper. Yikes! I did start on the back pieces in class on Thursday. Here is one half of the back of the bodice, which has been stay-stitched and has half the back tie attached. Purty.

In knitting news, I've begun to sew up elizabeth III. I was so anxious to see if it will fit this time, that I just sewed up enough of each seam to be able to slip it over my head and get a feel for how it will look. And... drumroll please... she's going to fit perfectly! Okay, I know I said that last time, but then I was thinking that adding the neckband would lift the sweater up quite a bit. Now that I know how it will hang when it is done, I can say with confidence that I knitted it just the right size - snug and shapely instead of big and baggy. It seems fitted just right through the waist and the length of the body and sleeves should be much better. Apparently, all the resizing calculations that I did were correct. I am so relieved! So now I have to finish sewing up the seams, add a neckband, weave in all the ends and then celebrate!!

[By the way, I am pro feeling like a woman, but con Shania Twain.]

Elizabeth is all sewn up and the neckband is finished, but she still has some minor problems. Before I get into that though, let me say that the sweater fits incredibly well, feels absolutely wonderful on and I totally love it! I've washed it and it's blocking now, so you'll have to wait until tomorrow for pictures. I must thank Melissa, who was also finishing up a frogged and reknitted sweater this weekend, for her encouragement. I am so proud that I had the courage to rip this sweater out and reknit it and then that I got all the math right when readjusting for gauge and size! So, now that the self-congratulation moment is over, on to the problems. And I really, really need your help here, since I'm going to have to venture into unchartered territory to fix 'em!

First, the neck is still a bit large. The sweater sits nicely on my shoulders and isn't falling off me or anything. Unless I move my arms around a lot. Then I get that Flashdance off-the-shoulder look, which isn't really what this sweater is about. I think that the yarn I used has a certain amount of elasticity and is also very smooth and drapey so that it's a little too happy to slip off a shoulder every now then. Is it possible, oh wise and experienced readers, to sew in some sort of ribbon or band around the inside of the neck to stabilize this area? If so, what sort of ribbon/band and how should I attach it?

The second problem is probably a result of having ripped this sweater apart so many times. There are some small stains on the yarn that simply will not wash out. I hadn't noticed them when knitting the yarn and they aren't too visible in daylight. But they are noticable under indoor lighting and are unfortunately right across the middle of the sweater. I still don't know what I was thinking buying white yarn for this sweater! Now, to my question. The last time I mentioned this, Leigh suggested that maybe I could dye the sweater. What do you all think about that? Could it work (the yarn is Orkide by Marks & Kattens and is 20% silk, 40% merino wool, and 40% acrylic microfiber)? Could I do it, never having done any dyeing before? I don't want to ruin the sweater trying to fix it!

I'm looking forward to your feedback. I hope you all can help. I love this sweater so much, I want to be able to make it something that I can really wear and really enjoy wearing. Thanks!

No pictures of elizabeth today, since I'm ripping out the neck. After washing, the whole sweater stretched out including the already-loose neck. I'm going to try - calmly - to rip out the neck and knit it a bit smaller, adding decreases in the two rows of garter stitch before and after the diamond pattern. Here's a picture of the edge pattern so you can see where I'll have to be adding decreases. I can't believe that I'm back to ripping. The whole sweater has become too large again and there are still those #@*^! stains. What is the point? Someone remind me.

In fact, there's altogether way too much ripping going on here. Last night, after finishing the back of the second giranimals sweater I had to rip it back to the armholes because I messed up the initial decreases and then after reknitting had to rip it out again because I had measured the length from the cast on edge and not from the end of the ribbing and it was too short. I am so tired of ripping!

She is done! Thanks so much for all the encouragement yesterday. I don't know how I could have completed this project without all of you you supporting me! I was completely frustrated, but then I got worried that if I took a break, elizabeth would end up stuffed in a project bag for another six months, so I just ripped and redid the neck right away. I reknit the neck using smaller needles (size 1's!) and adding another twenty(!) decreases. It holds perfectly well now (it's a full two inches smaller), but if any more stretching occurs like the other night after washing, I'm off to the fabric store to get some seam tape and little snaps to try out the great suggestions Larry and Cindy made the other day. But for now she fits. Check out the difference: elizabeth II and elizabeth III!

Luckily the front and the back of this sweater are the same, so I'll be choosing to wear the stains on the back, where I won't see them and may even forget about them. Perhaps if I grow my hair really long.... I do plan on knitting up a little swatch with the remaining yarn to test how this stuff would react to dye should I decide that I just can't handle the stains or, for that matter, the white.

What an experience! I'm glad I made it through this project and really do like the sweater I've made. It's clear to me now that this was just the absolute wrong yarn to have used for this sweater, but I do love the yarn itself and it was what was recommended to me, so I stuck with it and made it work in the end. I think she's just lovely.

February finishing month isn't over yet! I've still got native to finish. The first step is weaving in all the ends on the back and sleeves. Then I have to knit the front. And this thing is huge! One reason I stopped knitting it was because I thought it was becoming way too big. It's supposed to be an oversized sweater, but I wasn't spot on with gauge and started to worry that I might have to rip out everything I'd knitted so far. Mom reassured me however that oversized was what she liked, so now I only (ha ha!) have to knit a gigantic front to match the other pieces!

...as far as you're concerned ready-to-wear means yarn ends are no longer visibly hanging out of the garment.

I spent the boys' naptime yesterday weaving in ends on native and am only about 1/5 of the way through them. Sheesh, this is going to take forever! I actually wore my old crazy socks for months before I got around to weaving in the ends. Then out of sheer boredom, I just took them off my feet one day, wove in the four little ends and slipped 'em back on. Pathetic, I know.

...you long to start a new project.

I am dying to start greensleeves! I saw a pattern in the new Rowan mag that is perfect, perfect, perfect and I try every day to figure out an excuse for breaking my moratorium on new projects during February finishing month. Alas, I have failed to come up with anything that even I would find convincing.

...you can't knit anymore.

The back of giranimals II has been giving me such problems! I knit the back of giranimals I in what seemed like 15 minutes, but this one I had to rip out three times. Ugh! First, I messed up the armhole shaping and only noticed it when the sleeve ended up being too short. So I ripped back to the armhole decreases, fixed them and continued on until it came up short again. Measure, measure. That's when I realized that I had been measuring from the cast on edge and not the end of the ribbing. Rip back to armhole decreases, knit more, do decreases, c h e c k l e n g t h, and see that it is now way too long. Rip.... Finally, I finished the little bugger.

...you suspect yourself of subconsciously messing up a project just so it won't reach the finishing stage!

If the rest of giranimals II goes as quickly as the sleeve went, I'm in trouble!

...you start to actually like finishing.

Impossible.

I'm chugging along with giranimals II. So far there have been no relapses of the knitting nonsense that had me ripping out the back over and over again. By neglecting native yesterday (bad Alison!), I managed to finish almost all the pieces of the second jacket. It looks like it's just about time to do another giraffe pocket. Gulp.

I've got six more days of February finishing and my resolve not to start a new project until all my neglected ones were done is weakening. Karen made a good suggestion in the comments yesterday that I simply try to weave in a certain number of ends on native each day and then allow myself to do some more pleasurable knitting. I'd love for greensleeves to be that pleasurable knitting, but I think I have to be good and stick with giranimals. Heck, it's almost done now!

So the new goal is to make slow and steady progress on native and at the same time finish giranimals by the end of February. Then I will have been good enough to start greensleeves with impunity (and maybe another amazing project that is already on its way to me from the UK - oooh, bad Alison!).

After working on it the whole weekend, I finally finished the giraffe pocket for giranimals II. And then I ripped it all out. It was way too small. The pocket for giranimals I had come out a bit too big (I had to shorten it to make it fit) and I seem to have overcompensated when making the second pocket. Ripping out all that intarsia work was not fun and the yarn is so fluffy from the alpaca content that it kept catching and knotting. I had to cut a good deal of it out and am no longer sure that I'll have enough of the blue yarn to complete the pocket. I'll get more somewhere, but I'm now annoyed with this jacket and don't really feel like rushing to finish it before the end of February. So there.

Who thinks I should start greensleeves?!

You've convinced me. And I won't keep you in suspense anymore about which pattern I'm using - it's Able by Kim Hargreaves from the latest Rowan magazine (#33). I wanted to have a simple sweater with a center cable and had just been searching around for the right design. I was looking for something a little different from the basic cable over reverse stockinette background. And then I thought, moss stitch. Everytime I see the boys' aran sweaters, I start itching to do moss stitch again. I know most of you would rather stick knitting needles in your eyes than do a whole sweater in moss stitch, but I like it. As long as the yarn and the needles are halfway cooperative, I enjoy the rhythm of switching from knit to purl. So this pattern was absolutely perfect. I'll be using the green tweed for the moss stitch and then will try to do the center cable in the purple tweed yarn that Dava gave me to go with the green. Cool, huh?

My apologies to the authors of Knitting Pretty (a lovely little book for beginning knitters), but I just can't muster pretty right now. I'm knitting pissy, is what I'm doing.

February finishing month has taken it's toll on me. I'm very glad to have finished the projects that I did, but I still don't feel really successful, since I barely made any progress on native. And then there's giranimals II (the wrath of giranimals!), which has annoyed me so much that even though I've put it away, I still feel like I'm knitting shitty.

I'm also a little concerned that this blog has become kind of whiny in the last week, while the (admittedly self-imposed) pressure was on and the problems were plentiful. Thanks to everyone for all of your knitting pity and sorry about that! So as not to become a real knitting bitty, I'm officially putting aside all my remaining goals and deadlines and returning to knitting simplicity.

Thus ends my finishing adventure. Knitting tally: two baby sweaters completed (bugs I and giranimals I); one UFO finished (elizabeth III); next UFO identified (giranimals II); greensleeves begun. Knitting folly: thinking I might get native done, and buying yarn for another Starmore sweater.

My goals for March and beyond: knitting ready, knitting steady, knitting witty, knitting giddy, knitting jolly, and someday knitting it-all-y!

Here is S explaining to an oncoming B that he's very sorry but this package of yarn is undoubtedly for him. As you can see, B is trying to bribe his brother into handing it over in exchange for some other mail, but S is having none of that. After luring the boys away with a few raisins, I finally got a chance to check out my new yarn. Yay! It's my reward to myself for finishing elizabeth: another Starmore sweater, this time Iona from The Celtic Collection. Thanks to Kerrie for giving me the nudge I needed to go ahead and splurge for this project that I've been dying to make for such a long time and of course for sending all the yarn over to me from the UK. The yarn is Rowan's Chunky Chenille in a most lovely purple shade with a luscious red for the contrast color (this page shows both colors). The red is coming later in separate package. I guess we should let B bring that one in when it arrives!

Greensleeves is underway. I started with a sleeve, naturally, and I'm loving the moss stitch! My only concern is that I might not have enough yarn. If you remember, this is the yarn that I got at our knitting group's yarn swap back in the Fall and I'm not really sure how much I've got of it. It looks to be about 7 skeins at 175 yds each, but one skein was already wound and may not be complete and the 175 figure is from some book somewhere and wasn't printed on the ball bands. I did some math comparing the gauge/yardage requirements for Able to my gauge/estimated yardage of the green tweed and it seemed doable, but now that I've used one whole ball on the lower half of the first sleeve, I'm worried. So, I stopped there and have decided to go ahead and cast on for the back. I'd rather run out of yarn on the sleeves than on the body of the sweater! If I have to, I could redo the sleeve and use a bit of the purple on the cuff.

I'm so excited to be using this yarn finally and I really love the pattern, so I'm enjoying the knitting very much and remain hopeful that it will work out.

Dressy, my first big sewing project, is coming along nicely. For class this Thursday we were supposed to baste all the side seams together so we could try on our garments and do some precise fitting before sewing it up for real. What a difference from knitting! As long as you haven't cut the fabric too small, you can slip the thing on, pin it to fit, sew and cut away the excess. How practical. Of course with knitting, you've got to do all the fitting before making the garment. And unfortunately, I'm always unsure what it's going to look like when I put it on. I think an arm will be too long and it ends up too short, or that the waist will be perfect and it's too big. (I think I'm getting better, but we'll see how greensleeves comes out!) Maybe someday I'll be comfortable enough with steeking that I can sew and cut a new side seam for a sweater that has come out too wide. Maybe not.

Anyway, here is my dressy all basted together, adjusted to fit me, and ready for sewing. It looks huge on the hanger, but all the seam allowances are still there, and I'll be trimming almost two inches off of each side so it fits me perfectly. I love how the pattern formed a little group of blue and white flowers right down the backside. A good accident, for a change!