Cincinnati Famous, Y'all! You'll have to excuse this rather boastful post. Mr. Mouse insists that I share some of the press Dashing Mouse Designs has been getting recently. I am profoundly uncomfortable with tooting my own horn, but here goes. So you may recall that this whole endeavor began with a little yarn dyeing operation in my kitchen (by the way, had a massive dyeing day yesterday, lots of photos on my Instagram account if you're curious). Honestly the fact that people liked/bought/used my yarn at all surprised me quite a bit at first because, true to form, I had have a massive case of imposter syndrome. However, people do seem to like it and buy it and use it....
Thank Goodness for Leap Years! This month was a doozy. So much of a doozy that I did not write update posts (obviously), did not take progress photos (whoops), and (almost) did not finish. (You'll have to forgive my obsession with parentheses; it's one of the few remnants of my time in academia.) So let's start by acknowledging that there will be a couple of belated February follow-up posts with details about projects and photos and all that good stuff, ok? Ok! EZ casually suggests that one might knit some babies' things in February, then proceeds to pithily describe 1) a double knit baby blanket, 2) a square shawl, 3) a baby cardigan, and 4) a pair of baby "longies"...
Introducing the Coziest Sweater Ever! After much angst about what kind of neck to do, I bit the bullet and just knit as as written - continuing the pattern as tall as I wanted, then binding off in pattern. I could have gone for the full, turned-down turtleneck, but I don't find them flattering on me. I intend to rip out the bind off and redo it, this time not binding off in pattern. I know it seems unintuitive, but the large swaths of reverse stockinette are tending to curl rather unbecomingly, and that is far more noticeable than the bind off being not perfectly in pattern. Overall, I am pretty happy with this sweater. It was fun to knit,...
In Which I Reevaluate My Hatred of 16" Circular Needles I had a wall of text for you, beautifully composed of course, but the elders of the internet saw fit to render it naught but a series of ethereal ethernet echoes. So pardon me if this is incomplete or disjointed - it's a shabby reconstruction of the elegant original. I decided to work the sleeves on 16" circular needles. This is unusual for me as I have a strong dislike for 16" circular needles. Long story short, they tend to cramp my hands, cramp my knitting style, and feel like I'm breaking them. However, EZ loves them, and I was not looking forward to Magic Looping sleeves at this gauge....
A Body Without Armholes So having gleaned all the information necessary from my swatch cap, I forged boldly ahead into the body. I decided that 200 stitches around would be right for the size I wanted to make, so it was dead simple - no extra purl stitches to deploy anywhere. The body knit up ridiculously quickly, due in no small part to the fact that there is no waist shaping, no armhole shaping, in fact no anything shaping until you reach to tops of the shoulders. This allowed me to cheerfully chug along at it through airports and plane rides as Mr. Mouse and I travelled to California for his company's annual meeting. In fact, I was working the...
