I hate seaming. Well, I don’t mind it so much with mitts or infinity scarves. But just the thought of trying to line everything up to begin sewing long seams just makes me start to panic a little. Working in the round is where it’s at for me. Double pointed needles (dpn), straight circular rounds, or the magic loop method, I love them all. And after finishing my first top-down sweater, I dove right into my next one.
And, honestly, my first time using magic loop.
Now, my love of coffee began just before high school. I started with those powder mocha mixes. Then graduated to regular coffee with lots of sugar and cream. My brother and I used to sing the Beastie Boys song when out with my mom and she looked at us funny adding all that sugar.
I could go on about how and why coffee is one of my loves, but the point of this post is the sweater. Coffee dates or picking up a cup on our way home from running errands is one of the ways my mom and I spend time together. It was what she did with each of us in high school for one-on-one time. My siblings and I have fond memories of those dates.
So, the sweater. It’s from that same Coffeehouse Knits book as my first sweater and the yoke was so much fun to make. I don’t know if anyone else is like this, but when I start a pattern like this, I usually get several rows in before I get the swing of it. Then I rip it all out and start over so that I know it’s coming out right. With this one I did mess up a few times even after that. I had to frog back a few rows once or twice and I go stitch by stitch and they were cabling rows too!
Then I created this massive knot in my yarn. I tend to pull from the middle with larger skeins so I don’t have to spend an hour winding up a ball. This works great until the skein gets all floppy and starts to tangle. I tried rolling it into a ball from the other end one night and that helped a bit, but I left the skein a little intact and that was my mistake. A few days later I spent a very frustrated, but determined 40 minutes on this knot.
Originally, I was going to give this to my mother for Christmas. This pattern was her favorite when she looked through the book with me. With everything going on and us not being able to have our coffee dates, I think I’m going to try to finish this a little sooner and send it off to her for Mother’s Day. I’m hoping it will help pick up her spirits a bit during these times.
The Accidental Domestic Goddess 