new on the sticks

A good start on brother's alpaca muffler. The yarn is 100% prime undyed alpaca, silken and featherweight but a little sheddy.

This pic doesn't show the sinewy cables well, but they are actually quite lovely in person. I've wanted to knit this pattern for awhile (from Tricoter's menswear book) because I remember the shop sample being one of the loveliest things I'd ever fondled. Now I'm wondering--was it really that beautiful? Because while I like this quite well, I'm not besotted.

Maybe because I had several false starts on this one--tried the pattern multiple times but couldn't get anywhere near gauge or width with the needles they suggested, even though this yarn is the same gauge as what was recommended. Then tried the balloons scarf from Scarf Style but found the pattern didn't show up well in this yarn (the shop example where I bought the yarn was the balloon scarf but in a lighter gray). Finally had to modify the number of stitches, and stupidly didn't multiply right for the cables, but decided I could live with the result. This is very, very easy knitting, and it's humming right along, so it should be ready for brother's arrival at Thanksgiving.

an FO!

Glory hallelujah, it seems impossible, but here it is:

Technicalities: I knit tightly, and my gauge is almost always too many stitches per inch, but it will fit the intended fine because she was between sizes. It was my second project with the Denise needles, and I didn't like them at all--the cables were too chunky to knit in the round easily, the tips blunted, the joins catchy. I guess they're fine as backup needles, but not my first choice. Anyone using the new needle set from KnitPicks?

This FO seems all the more astonishing because these days I'm too pooped to fold my laundry, because I've had the pattern for two years, bought the yarn this summer, and have promised it to the baby's mother a long, long time. It's so good to be done with it!!! And there's enough yarn left to make one for our baby B when he is ready for trips to the pumpkin farms in a couple of years. Now I have to quickly transition to the alpaca muffler for my brother, because I just heard yesterday that he's coming from China for Thanksgiving.

I love my brother. He's a peripatetic spirit, a world traveler. He's delighted that we're having a boy, who will be (partly) his namesake. (Partly because the middle name we've chosen for baby B is shared by my father, my brother, and two of DH's best friends). When I told him I was pregnant, he told me he wants to be like Auntie Mame (yes, he's gay) and take this little one all over the world. He sent me an e-mail yesterday, and this was all it said:
1. Birth
2. Social Security #
3. Passport

Adventures await. I think I'm beginning to feel the Sprout moving, and it's freakin' me out.