Yarn Along - A Silver Medal Finish

Technically I did knit a Rebecca Boone "vest".  I just ended up making a miniature one so I could figure out all sorts of stuff that I didn't even know I needed to figure out until they happened.  If you realize something isn't going to work and needs to be ripped back and re-knit, it doesn't hurt as much if you are only talking about 70 stitches rather than rows and rows of 200 ;-).  

Designing patterns is hard work.  When you see that small charge next to a pattern download, pay it happily (and fairly).   Someone has put a ton of work into those three or four sheets of paper you are getting ready to print out.  And if you are thinking about giving it a try yourself, do it!  You'll learn a whole lot and make a cute little sheepy or teddy bear really happy :-D.

"I can't believe someone knit me a handspun sweater!"

And now on to my favorite part - blocking.  See how wonky everything is?

I start with a good soak in some warm water with a little Mrs. Meyer's lavender laundry soap.  I didn't use quite as hot water as I usually do because I was nervous about the Cotswold yarn being more shrinky than a more medium wool.  Not sure if it is, just a fear.  I should do a test of some different swatches sometime and find out.

Pinned out to dry.

Tadaa :-)

A close up of the collar.  I was wanting to do a lock spun yarn from Rebecca Boone's lamb fleece that I still have stashed.  It's so pretty and lots of different colors and darker grays.  It didn't look quite right though with the lighter gray sweater, so I pulled down some of Graham's lamb fleece. 

I'd originally planned to tail spin it around a core the proper way, and I did, but I didn't like the yarn.  I've not found a core spun yarn yet that I really like.  Oh, they're pretty to look at, but I just don't like the feel of it knitted.  Maybe I'll try weaving it sometime.  In the meantime, I just fluffed up his baby locks and spun two small singles and then plied them together.  Worked fine, looked good and knit up just the way I wanted :-).

Here's a better view of the the lace pattern and the attached i-cord edging on the front panels.  The pattern worked out well and was easy to maneuver around because it had so much stockinette stitch involved, but when I do a full size sweater, I'll mirror the patterns on the fronts so they, well, mirror each other.  Lots to learn :-).

Burrnie Update - and his name is going to stay Burrnie.  It just fits him.  He's doing really well, is really sweet, super smart and we're glad he's here :-).
 
I started having some trouble yesterday with Daniel Not-Boone (who's maybe actually more Bossy Boone than we'd have thought ;-).  Poor Daniel.  Chocula doesn't like being separated from the rest of his friends.  "I didn't doooo anything.  Why do I have to be in priiiison over here?..."  If Chocula's upset, his big brother Daniel is upset.  Burrnie was completely behaving himself, but was still getting some retaliatory punches and it looked like it wasn't going to stop.  No one should have to feel scared, especially at night.  I kicked Daniel out of the group :-/.

I went back up before bed to check on everyone and all was quiet.  This morning I found three sleeping spots outside, near the back corner of the barn. I'm guessing that's Chocula and Hershey together on the right and Burrnie on the left.  Daniel had a matching spot just over the fence corner a few feet away.  While I was sad they'd all slept out on the cold ground, at least they'd all slept together.