This week is shaping up to be much better than last week. For starters, Scott is feeling much better - no anxiety attacks, even though he went back to work on Monday. Thanks to everyone who expressed their concern.
Also, I finished my cashmere sweater, and I'm wearing it today. In a knitting frenzy, I knit an entire sleeve on Saturday while watching X2: X-Men United and Monster's Ball (both excellent movies). Then on Sunday at Church of Craft I sewed it up. And last night I washed it. Oddly and unfortunately, it did not shrink very much lengthwise like my swatch did. Problematic, given that I based my pattern on the swatch gauge, and so the sleeves in particular were much too long. This morning I did the unthinkable and put it in the dryer, and it shrunk a bit so that now the sleeves are still long, but acceptable. It's a "look" now, rather than an obvious mistake. But I may try to shrink it a bit more. There was no visable damage from putting the sweater in the dryer. Sometimes I'm amazed at what cashmere can withstand. Berta is always telling people that they can machine wash their cashmere sweaters.
Part of why I wanted to be able to wear the sweater today is that this evening I'll be seeing lots of knitters at a talk that Debbie Stoller is giving at Makor, where I teach beginning knitting classes. I've been looking forward to the talk for a while, and I enjoy wearing my own creations when meeting knitters. I'm a show-off, what can I say?
I found myself without commuter knitting this week, so I've picked up again one of the lace shawls that I started last summer. It's really pretty, and the pattern is complex enough to be interesting but intuitive enough to memorize (the best kind!). I probably won't finish it before I start something else, but it's a good diversion.
I've also been reading a lot this week - I started Watership Down, a book I've had on my shelf for about 10 years without ever cracking it open. In high school my Latin teacher, whom I revered, once called Watership Down "The Aeneid with bunny rabbits." It's incredibly engrossing; this morning when I had to get off the subway I didn't want to stop reading it! I highly recommend it to all humans.
Hey, Alison, what happened to the prototype sweater you were knitting? Is it going to be published?
Posted by: Lisa | February 11, 2004 at 09:50 PM
Glad to read things are better for you and your hubby. You must have been so worried. Sounds like a nice cozy sweater. I don't have cashmere to wash but putting it in the machine does sound scarey, ack.
Rita
Posted by: Rita | February 13, 2004 at 10:19 PM