Grapes In Central Park -- complete

Some of you wondered who took the family photo in my last post.  To get the shot, I set the camera up on a tripod and set the timer.  After about 10 tries, we had a keeper.  =)

I realize that any moment this blog is silent, wild speculation is bound to occur.  As of this moment, no baby, no husband. 

As much as I'd love to obsess about Holy Crap My Belly Is Huge Why Aren't You Out Yet Baby, I'm going to show you a knitted finished object instead.

Last night, I finished up my Grapes In Central Park Hoodie.

I think that this is the first sweater I ever had a serious desire to make.  Why I've waited so long to actually accomplish it is beyond me.

This sweater has extra meaning to me, because the generous and talented Chris from Briar Rose Fibers handpainted this yarn in a colorway just for me and sent it as a gift when Greg deployed.  It's comfort knit into comfort.  I love it!



It wasn't difficult, and the actual knitting of it didn't take all that much time.



The cables were of the simplest kind, and the design is classic and wearable.

I haven't determined how I'll fasten the front yet, but I'm not worried, since I won't be able to even think about the fronts meeting for a good while (this is not knit to my soon-to-be expanded nursing measurements, if you catch my drift.)  It fits perfectly though through the armholes and arms, so I know that it will be an excellent fit overall when I am finally back to my "normal" size...in about a year-and-a-half, or whatever.

I did follow Stephanie Pearl McPhee's suggestion and ran a chain of crochet along the neck/base of hood to reinforce it against possible sagging in the future.


The only other modifications I made were to knit the bottom rib only to 2-1/2 inches (I don't like tons of ribbing hugging my middle), and I knit the sleeves in the round up to the sleeve cap shaping.  When I seamed the pieces together, I used this little trick that I came up with:


I lined up the pieces, then ran a long running stitch through them to hold them together about an inch from where I'd be seaming.  This keeps everything in place perfectly, and you don't have to worry about pins slipping out and stabbing you, or moving those expensive Knit Klips around as you go.  Everything stays in place, and everyone is happy.

Now I've got my eye on a few new projects.  There's nothing like swatching for about 4 projects at a time with a baby due-date looming!

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