The sweater of many months

I cast this puppy on November 27, 2014. It's for my granddaughter, Elsa, and it's my first ever sweater.

Free pattern from Michael's meant for Bernat Softee Baby yarn.

At one point, I was wearing golf gloves to knit it. I was stabbing myself with the US 6 needles a lot, and I hadn't yet learned how to stop pushing the tips. This was also to show my heroic efforts at knitting with a lighter-than-worsted yarn, Rowan Modern Cotton. It turns out that gloves rub the yarn and fuzz it, so I got over that pretty quickly.

December 14, 2014. I finished the first of the two sweater fronts. By this time, Elsa and I were engaged in a race to see if I would be able to finish it before she outgrew it. This incredibly simple pattern had shaping through increases, decreases, and casting on and binding off stitches. After the first front, the second was just like it, and then the back was basically a square.

First front.

December 17, 2014. An early morning disaster occurred wherein I knocked over a cup of coffee and spilled it on both of the sweater fronts. A quick trip to the sink, capping off the cable, and a good drying session saved the day. Got the cord on my stitch counter, too. I vowed to drink only water in a closed container while knitting from that moment forward. That didn't stick, but this disaster had a happy ending.

Disaster recovery.

In December, we started remodeling one of our bathrooms. I had to spend large amounts of time away from home to avoid smelling the glue solvents in the plumbing and breathing sheetrock dust. On one day, I went to the restaurant in the grocery store, took possession of a table, and knitted for at least four hours straight.

That was a huge mistake. Dr. Internet told me I had irritated my ulnar nerve, and I had to take a break from knitting for about a week. I did some exercises to "thread" the nerve, and it eventually got better.

I hoped to finish it by Christmas 2014. That came and went.

On Monday, January 12, 2015, I had endovascular surgery to insert a pipeline embolization device in my left internal carotid artery to starve a brain aneurysm located there. Since it was, by definition, brain surgery, our two boys came to hang with their dad during the procedure. I thought I might be able to finish it in time to send it home with Elsa's daddy.

By this point, I had finished the two fronts and the back and most of one sleeve. Sunday night, I finished the first sleeve and also made the second. I basically stayed up all night (because who's going to sleep before something like that, anyway?). I'd nod off once in a while, put the work down, sleep a little and then get back to it when I woke up. I didn't manage to actually sew the parts together before heading to the hospital, darn it. My iPhone gives pictures a green spot under fluorescent lighting, meaning our whole house. Ignore it. I swear it's not coffee stains.


Ready to assemble.

The procedure went well, I spent a night in the neuro ICU, and I was sent home around lunch the day after. The team had performed two of these procedures on Monday, both of us were doing very well, and they needed our beds. Fine by me. The sons went around town visiting friends, I rested up, and we all went to dinner at Cinzetti's Italian buffet that evening. Then the boys headed home a day earlier than they intended to.

We almost never take pictures together, so despite my dirty hair and lack of grooming, we had a person at a neighboring table get this. See? Upright, conscious, none the worse for the wear. Elsa's daddy Nathan is on your left, my hubby Kent is in the center, and Elsa's uncle Jason is on your right.

At dinner the night after surgery.

Since I had the rest of the week off work, I was able to dedicate much of it to finishing the sweater. Judging by my Facebook posts, I got it done the next day. I assembled the parts and knit four ties. The pattern had me make them by casting on a row of stitches and then immediately binding them off. Simple, right? I have decided to blame the lingering effects of anesthetic for my attaching the two ties that belong on the inside incorrectly to the outside and having to remove and re-attach them.

Simple cast on, bind off ties.

Here it hangs, in all its dubious glory. Kind of plain, isn't it?

Tada!

I crocheted a couple of flowers, one from the sweater yarn, and one from some purple leftovers. I'm not much at crochet, but you can sort of tell what was intended. There are safety pins sewn into the backs so Elsa's mom can switch them out as she likes.
     

Crocheted flower pins.

I boxed it up and mailed it to her, and this picture appeared on her daddy's Facebook page a couple of days later. She's wearing the purple shirt and pants from Target that I sent with it.

Note the sleeve and body length. I swear I only made it an extra inch long overall and matched her shoulder to wrist measurements. I didn't account for the weight of the cotton yarn lengthening everything. It's OK. She can still wear it this winter, ten months later.