The World According to Marney

Monday, December 1

Happy December

I hope everyone had a happy and healthy Thanksgiving. I know my holiday was rather nice. Of course, it really is not a holiday that is condusive to vegetarians, so I got to indulge myself in potatoes, cranberries and peas. It may not sound very fulfilling to you, but I enjoyed it very much. With all of the turkey talk going around, I was feeling a bit left out, so when I got back home, I bought some meatless turkey loaf and giblet gravy. To be honest, the abbreviated dinner on Thursday was much more fulfilling. But I got that out of my system.

I did get some knitting done over the weekend. I had time on the 3 hour bus ride Wednesday afternoon to work on the chenille blanket. It is about 4 or 5 inches right now. When I got to the house in Connecticut, I spied a fellow knitter. So, I went up to her to talk about her project. She told me that it was her first project, a scarf from Stitch 'N Bitch. Being the ever over-exuberant knitter, I told her about the bunny backpack that I made for the book and how wonderful Deb Stoller is. By the time people started showing up for dinner the next afternoon, word had spread of my pseudo celebrity to every knitter there. Not bad for being the new kid one the block. I have discovered that if you ever have to go to a large gathering with people that you do not know, it helps to have a bit of noteriety to break the ice.

I also worked on the alpaca project, which I admit is going to be a roll-neck sweater for Nolan. I wasn't going to tell him before it was finished, but I started to get a little worried that it is not quite big enough. Since the 9 inches of length that I have finished so far on the back took me over 2 weeks on size US 0 needles, I thought it would just be better to measure him and forget about the surprise. Although my gauge seems to be pretty regular (8 stitched to the inch), my sweater is about 1/2 an inch too narrow. 160 stitches should give me 20 inches, right. Well it doesn't. I have measured repeatedly. Maybe the fuzzy alpaca in charcoal gray with tiny stitches is hard to count. Let's face it, it's almost impossible to count. So instead of taking the whole thing apart, I put that side on extra yarn (none of my stitch holders were small enough to fit in the stitches) and started the other side. I added an additional 10 stitches to make up for the missing 1/2 inch on each side. I am not far enough from the ribbing to measure it accurately. We'll see.

My questions to the knitters out there are, if I am off by 1/2 an inch in width, should I make that the front and have the sleeves 1/4 of an inch further forward on each side? Or should I adjust the inset of the sleeves so they are evenly placed (more binding off on the wider side than the narrower side)? Or does any of this matter since I am talking about such a small amount and very dark yarn that tends to be forgiving?

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