The little Mandarin Petit stripy raglan sweater, it is done.

I am so thrilled to have finished something other than a hat! (Let's face it, it's been ages since I've finished a sweater.) But even more exciting than having finally gotten this non-finishing monkey off my back, is finally getting to see this cutie patootie little stripy sweater on my wee one.

Wee loves the sweater so much, she didn't mind posing for extra pics at all. So here's a back shot!

I love the colors on her. The Mandarin Petit cotton is so lovely. Doing the stripes and carrying all those balls of yarn was a bit of a nightmare, but it's a fabulous sweater. And it's still plenty long on her, so I hope she'll still be able to wear it in the Fall.

Phew. I did it. And it feels good.

This weekend, wee turned three! I can't believe it, but there is no denying that this is the face of a three year-old.

Also unbelievable is that fact that I've had this stripy raglan sweater on the needles for wee's entire life, but it is still not finished.

It's as close as can be though, with just the neck to finish. I ran into some sizing issues while I was doing the neck shaping (considering I cast on for a one year size, but am knitting to a four year length, I'm amazed I only ran into problems here at the end) and tested wee's three year-old patience quite a bit with multiple try-ons and adjustments. But it's all good now and the only thing keeping wee from her new sweater is about 75 ends that still need to be woven in and the unseasonably warm spring-like weather we're having. But both those will be taken care of soon enough, I'm sure.

Until then, she's loving being three.

Three: old enough to pick out your own outfit (American Girl shirt and twirly skirt), but still young enough to play with dolly (see her on the floor there?). And the perfect age to dance, dance, dance.

Wee wanted to watch me take knitting photos the other day and was thrilled with the progress I've made on her Mandarin Petit sweater. I've worked a bit more than one repeat of the color stripe pattern in the yoke and am just about ready to make a placket opening (for the back) and start working back and forth. Not much farther now. Luckily, winter lasts forever in Boston. And the spring is cold.

It took two weeks and considerably more television than I'd expected, but wee's stripey Mandarin Petit sweater is now together, with two sleeves and incipient raglan shaping. I'm nearing the end!

Very slowly.

+ 1 hour of even worse tv*
__________________________

6 inches of stripy sleeve

More Idol and more knitting tonight!

* - namely, Chelsea Lately and a random half hour somewhere in the middle of Bride Wars

I now pronounce the second-to-last sleeve of wee's Mandarin Petit stripy sweater done! (Well, up to the armholes at least, as this is a raglan sweater knit in the round with a yoke.) And now on to the last sleeve...

Thank goodness American Idol starts tonight. I need hours of mindless tv viewing to keep me from getting frustrated with all the balls of yarn and the tangling and the untwisting and the slowness. Return to Cranford (shown twice back-to-back) got me through the end of that first sleeve. Let's see how far the first two nights of Idol (3 1/2 hours!) can get me.

That's what I keep telling myself.

And although it's not really that bad when I'm knitting this little Mandarin Petit sweater for wee and I find I can somehow manage to have seven balls of yarn hanging off the thing and still knit without losing my mind, as soon as I take a break from it, it is so hard for me to get myself to pick it up again. Because it's slow. Reorganizing all those balls after every one or two rounds is so painfully, motivation-killingly slow. In two knitting sessions, I've only made it about halfway up the first sleeve (which I have started calling the second-to-last sleeve in an effort to convince myself that this is almost over!). But it's so pretty when it's all done. I can't stop now, right? Especially when this sweater has already sat around waiting three years to be finished. Ugh, I fear I am going to have to say something New Year's-y like "this is the year that I finish this sweater!" to get me to actually do it.

At least I am encouraged by seeing how much wee likes the sweater. She laid down next to it while I was taking the picture and started to rub the edge like she does with her blankie. (Can you see blankie and dolly in the picture? And her carrot tattoo too!) She's so cute. For her, I can make more stripes. For her, I will try to have more fun.

I found this striped Mandarin Petit sweater in the stash while searching for something else entirely. In fact, this find was so exciting, I forgot what I was originally hunting down! What I found was just the first three inches of this sweater - all I had knitted before I shoved it into the stash three years ago. I instantly remembered loving this sweater pattern, pulled it out and continued knitting.

three and a half years ago

That was this sweater over three years ago, May 2006 to be exact. We had a sample of this sweater at the store that I had fallen in love with and I was planning to make it for a friend's baby-on-the-way. But then I found out I was pregnant with wee one and very excitedly replanned it for her! I must have knit an inch past the red section above, right to the point where one of the color stripes repeats, and then my pregnant self decided it couldn't deal with all those yarn balls hanging off the sweater and all those strands being carried. Or else it was the fear of the other option, weaving in all those ends, that overcame me. Either way, I abandoned it. And as wee one grew and my stash was pushed further into the back of the closet, I forgot about it.

Until now!

body to armholes complete - that wasn't too hard after all

I freaking love it! And by some miracle, it will still fit her. I had cast on for the one year size, which is rather generously sized, like many of these Scandinavian sweaters. I held it up to a sweater wee wore last winter and it was still two inches wider! So there's no need to rip anything out. Yes! The pattern even goes up to a size four, which means I can follow the numbers for the four year length while keeping the one year width. It's like it was meant to wait three years for me to finish it. If I'd finished it before, it would have been way too wide, because she's a slender girl, and too short, since she shot up like a weed between one and two years.

When I think that I pretty much started this sweater right when wee one was conceived and now she's two and half and I can see how it is so totally her, well, I'm getting a little verklempt finishing it. Sniff, sniff.

Getting a late start today because it's Memorial Day here in America. A day for barbeques, sun, and lots of red, white, and blue. We've actually got hazy sun today, we're going to a barbeque later this afternoon and I've even covered blue and white here on the blog in the last few days. That just leaves red.

It's a new baby sweater on the needles! We have this sweater in the store as a model and it is soooo adorable. When I heard that hubby's work colleage was having a girl, I knew I wanted to make this sweater for the baby. Mandarin Petit is the yarn and the pattern is from Sandnes Mandarin Petit book #0407. 166 stitches on US 3's and I'm loving it!