I love this pattern

Being the enabler...er....the knitter who shares good things with you all...I have to tell you about a new pattern that I have fallen hard in love with. It comes from this book: Sirdar 299, Toddler Aran Knits. The pattern I started the other day is Design H in the book. It comes in either round neck, collar, or hoodie versions. I'm doing the hoodie style. My daughter's got yet another pregnant friend, and they don't know if it's a boy or girl, so she picked white for this sweater.

After only one afternoon, this is how far I got! Oh, I should say, I'm using the new WHITE in the Caron Simply Soft worsted weight, since I didn't have any Sirdar Aran yarn on hand. It seems to be working up just fine.

Again, I'm doing it all in one piece from the bottom up. Well, the left, right fronts, and the back, I meant. I find that taking some papers and writing out notes line by line, makes it pretty easy to get through. The trick I found, was to make sure to visualize which section to knit depending on the front or back side of the sweater. That means, on the right side of the knitting, it goes right front, back, left front. On the wrong side of the knitting, you start on the left front, back, right side. Once I had it written down, with ONLY the sizes (and correct needle sizes!) that I would be making, it was a breeze to get to the knitting.

Yesterday I finished the back and right front portions and started the sleeves. Today I finished the sleeves. Next step is to sew them together, and add the hood! I can't wait to see this all put together. This is one sweater, I will make again, and in the other versions as well. (note, if you look between the three sections that I knitted all in one piece, you'll see the garter knit 'sides' that I'll mattress stitch to give the side seams to the sweater.) I have to say, knitting a sweater in one piece, sure makes it feel like it's done faster to me. I think I'm going to have to figure out how to knit in the sleeves at some point for a raglan sweater, as well.

Here's what the sweater looks like all 'folded' together. I'm sooooo in love with the pattern!

Now, remember the Two Hearts as One Baby Blanket that I sent down to Texas? Here's where it was as I finished my part of the hand knitting. It really needed a border on it to finish off the sides. The edges curled in terribly, and it wasn't a finished look. Check out what Arlene did to it on her knitting machine!

See how it all lays flat? She's on vacation right now, so I haven't heard the particulars, but I'll wager a guess that after putting on the 'rope like' trim, she also hit it with a shot from her steamer. Here's a closer look at the trim.

I'm dying to hear what she did exactly. I want to knit one up in a smaller size for the "Just My Size" group of my patterns. I'll be able to double check the pattern and get it posted for you all. But I have to say, this time I was really stumped on the edging for a long time, and I'm so thrilled with what Arlene picked for this blanket! Thanks my friend!

OK, I've been working on the pattern for the Baby Jiffy Knit Preemie sized pattern. The pictures have been uploaded, and some of the finished details of the 3 hats I recently made. Let me go clean up the pattern itself, so I can get it up and posted for your knitting needs. If it's not up today, I'll have it up in the morning (I hope). I hope you are finding patterns that you're enjoying working with. Oh, I'll have a new version of one of the dishcloth patterns up shortly, and a matching Kitchen Hanging Hand Towel to go with it too! (guess I'd better get to typing things faster, eh?)

PS. Thanks for the continued prayers and celebrations for Mom. It's so nice to be able to tell her that she's got a LOT of prayers being said on her behalf. But I don't think she really has a clue how many of you out there on keeping her in your good wishes. Even though all 3 of her sisters are/have been knitters, and she's met a lot of good people in her lifetime, she doesn't really get the 'Internet' community. I'm OK with that. It's fun to hear her reactions every time I try to explain it to her.

One last note...whoever broke into my daughter's stuff last night-you may have gotten her whole $5...but you also got a whole lot of bad ju-ju karma on your side. Someday, it will catch up to you and bite you big time on your backside. I hope it hurts tremendously! She's not down and out, and you only made her a lot stronger! And now she gets to come home and I get to hug her! HA! joke's on you. Dummy.