Thursday, February 10, 2011

Another Nash baby

My grandmother Celia Nash, was a wonderful, loving, funny, kind woman who could bake like nobody's business. She had seven children and consequently, a slew of grandchildren. She lived in Michigan and we lived in Wisconsin, so we didn't get to see her much. But when we did, it was a full house of fun of laughter. The slew of grandchildren have scattered across the country from coast to coast, so we don't get to see each other too often. But luckily for me, my oldest cousin landed just a state away so I've been able to spend some time with him and his sweet wife and son. Now, I'm excited to say they've added one more to our family. A baby girl. I'm excited not just because there's one more Nash descendant but also because it's an opportunity to knit for a baby, which is always fun. I chose this vintage pattern because it reminded me of my aunts and my grandmother. It seems so classic baby. It's the "five hour" sweater. It might actually have been a five hour sweater except for the fact that there are two ways to do the increase and I chose the wrong one.

If you care to learn from my mistake: a common and nifty increase is to lift the yarn in between two stitches, put it on the needle and knit it. When knitting socks or gloves, you typically knit through the back loop, twisting the stitch so there is no hole. (There is also a bit about which way you put it on the needle, creating a left leaning or right leaning increase, but that's not relevant here). With this sweater, however, you want a hole! If you knit through the back loop, as I did on my first go around, you get a tighter weave and no pretty bobble. I figured this out deep into the top rows. I thought about just leaving it, it looked okay even though it wasn't what I wanted. But, it wasn't what I wanted. I'm hoping this sweater lasts a long time, so what's a few more hours - especially since it's a fun knit and it's great yarn - a washable cashmere blend!


2 comments:

Unknown said...

Beautiful! I've got to get cracking - friends of ours are having a baby girl in April. That's practically tomorrow in knitting terms ;-)

Anonymous said...

OOH! All those bobbles. Very fun. I like the color too. There is something wonderful about babies in white. Great job! :)