And Now Debuting

the "Man Sweater." For some insane reason I decided that JB needed a handknit sweater for Christmas this year. The first thing I had to do was find a pattern. I looked through magazines - online and in print and came up with Leo. This is a free pattern from the Fall 2006 issue of Knitty. If you have never been there, go now. Take a look. This is a free online knitting magazine and they have cute, easy, trendy patterns. Can't ask for more than that, now can you?

Taking the designers yarn choices into consideration as well as the growing barel belly on JB, I started looking for yarn that wouldn't break the bank. I ended up with Peruvian Highland Silk in calypso green from Elann-dot-com.

Unfortunately, I still needed to order 15 balls of it. Other than staining my new bryspun circular needles a slight green this has been a joy to work with. It's smooth, flows through the fingers effortlessly and apparently, progress is being made.

I cast on last Friday morning - nothing like waiting until there are only 24 days before Christmas. I knit on it any chance I get - waiting for my latte in the car on my way to work will usually get a row down. Cooking dinner - a stitch here, a stitch there adds up to a couple of row. Car - I am very lucking with the fact that while JB knows I'm knitting he doesn't actually pay any attention to what. So, I can work on this right in front of him and when he unwraps it, without fail he will say "When did you make this?" While taking the picture this morning I was pleasantly surprised to see that the back has made it to 7.5 inches - 16 inches total before shoulder shaping so I'm almost half-way there!