No Trust in Gauge

Where the time goes, I'll never know. There are so many little things I'd like to do, vaguely think I'll do them some time this morning/afternoon/evening and suddenly it's the next day and I'm thinking the same thing all over again. At this rate, I know I'm going to get to the end of my life by what will seem like tomorrow. I'm going to look back and wonder where it all went.

Thus far, things are looking pretty good with the Arwen. I'm doing the bottom in one piece on a long cable and it looks like it will fit just fine. I'm waiting for all hell to break loose when I block. I think I may just wash it in a sweater bag this time and lay it out flat asap so I don't have to worry about water weight stretching it out or anything similar. I really, really want this sweater to fit. I'm loving what I have done to the point where I sit and stroke it before putting it away at night. It's so soft and smooth and pretty and lovely and I want to be able to wear it. If it fits, it will be my crowning project as a knitter. Please, please fit! Please! Mr. Gauge, I promise to swatch properly for every sweater I ever knit again if it does fit, so please let it fit me!

Now that we've had the party, I can blog about my Little LotR Cardy with pictures. Theoretically, I shouldn't have said anything at all pre-party, but I'm almost always knitting for other people and my blog would die if I hid everything (besides, I love this little sweater). Anyway, here it is:

I knit this for a friend in Michigan who's having a baby next month. It's for a 18-24 month old, but I wasn't sure what to knit for a new born in Michigan in April. The weather could go either way and if I picked the wrong thing, it would never get worn. This should hopefully be wearable two autumns/winters from now. The yarn is a 50/50 wool/cotton blend and is fabulous. Unfortunately, the store I bought it from is no longer stocking it. Had I known about it and known it would be running out, I would have gone and bought more colours for stash purposes because it's fabulous. It's soft and warm, just like you would want for a baby. It also knits up really well. I used 2.75mm needles, so it's a tight knit which will help keep the warmth in. Since I still wasn't getting gauge even with the small needles (I spent over a week gauge swatching this one. The knitting gods hate me.), I added another band of cables on each side to take up some of the extra width, which I think worked. I seriously hope that I one day get pictures of little Ife in this sweater, because I love it and I think Mommy did too.