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Third Time is the Charm!

Third Time is the Charm!

Apr 25th 2012

I wanted to make a sweater for a special new baby who is the son of a close friend of our son’s. Seemed pretty simple—a cardigan with hood. I used a pattern from an English designer and that is where the trouble started. I realized that the pattern had LOTS of errors but I foolishly thought I could get past that. I had the whole thing nearly done when I realized it just wasn’t right—nothing fit and it was just bad. So round two: same yarn different pattern and I realized part way through I hated the colors. To top it off I was worried the size was not right since the baby started out at a healthy 9# and I assumed he was growing as I was dithering.

Have any of you had the same sort of thing happen? So…on to round 3 with some wonderful Mission Falls cotton, a better pattern and finally:

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One of the reasons I couldn’t get any version done as soon as I wanted was our trip to beautiful Maryland. Everything is so lush and green and blooming just as the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival is happening. We had a terrific time seeing old and meeting new friends of Signature. We all wish we had more time to look around at the other vendors. Our booth was mobbed, which is always a very humbling experience.

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If you were there you probably met Laura and her husband Brian who drove the van out. Of course that meant kids Jack and Katie stayed home with Grandpa Kent who certainly deserves a gold star for managing the unbelievable schedules and their dog Mel.

Grandson Jack was so happy to bring his carefully organized pile of MAD magazines because he knew Kent would love them. They laughed and bonded over them. Even though sister Katie is the knitter Jack is very interested in Signature and so he did this drawing for me:

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I especially loved the sweater that Alfred has knit—please note the 3 arms. If that baby sweater had had one more problem it probably would have been me knitting 3 arms for it.

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Spring has come here too and I am starting my backyard planting. I read about a tool that I wish I had in all the years when I had huge vegetable and flower gardens. At one time I had over 3000 sq feet of vegetables with other beds for strawberries, grape vines, fruit trees and hundreds of feet of flower beds. For Christmas I got several things on my gardening list. The first is a Japanese Hori Hori garden knife. It is a tool that has just blown me away. It is fabulous for getting things from between cracks, cutting through clumps of perennials and even making holes for tucking some plant in. What a tool! The second thing in the picture is some Atlas Nitrile Gloves which actually don’t wear out but fit my small hand so there is no extra material at the fingers.

Apparently using great tools that actually fit makes a difference. I may have heard that somewhere else…