LOL! I love this coffee photo, it looks like it’s straight out of Interweave Knits. My husband has officially justified his outrageous camera purchase. =p

26Dec2012: My contrast yarn, 100% “aran” cotton, was sooo much bigger than my main yarn. So, I had to deviate from the pattern by knitting many less pocket lining rows, and decreasing the number of stitches by 20%.

Because I didn’t want a big sleeve opening, I decreased 10% during the bind-off, which was in the tight classic bind-off style.

I did sew the back of the stems in the pockets and yoke to make them stand out more, as per the pattern suggestion.

Pictures in a sophisticated “chalet” in St-Hippolyte, Quebec, after a 36 hour power outage in a snowstorm. Despite what they say on TV, power outages in the middle of a Quebec winter are NOT romantic. =p

26Nov2012, a.k.a. my 35th birthday: The reason I test knit so much these days is to reduce my stash. And so, I am so pleased to be using one of the first yarns I ever bought after learning to knit, for al-fa’s awesome new design. Ah, nostalgia. This was back in the day when I had a running ebay search for ‘yarn lot kit’ and scored 11 balls and a pattern for $27.00, when the ball bands said $5.40 each. =) I was proud. Then I tried the GGH pattern: nightmarishly written for a beginner, and so this yarn has been languishing for years and years.

The yarn is deliciously squishy, but at this gauge, cotton is hard on the hands, I have to push hard to move the stitches!