A Small Accomplishment

Here is my small, but warm accomplishment of last week. Even if it is only warm in a pretend way, pretend holds a high place in our household. This is Waldorf Mama's free sweater pattern (downloadable from her blog). I knit it in an economical, dark grey Paton's Merino that was in the stash. These mismatched buttons were also in my stash. I think I got them when I used to be addicted to buying old ladie's sewing boxes on ebay. The only modification I made to the sweater was to take off 8 rows of garter stitch at the bottom of the sweater, I wanted it to hit at the waist. The rest of Molly is still pretty clothes-free but I'm chipping away at this project slowly. Molly is pictured in front of the house she wishes she fit in.

Here is who really fits in it:

Our wooden Baby J and "Madeline."

A Special Yarn

This is the first yarn I ever bought. Well, there are two: the blue is Peace Fleece and the green is Little Turtle Knits farm yarn. Both are two ply, both are a little scratchy in my opinion. I bought them with the hopes of making Super M a soaker for his cloth diapers. I was searching for a way to avoid the synthetic fabrics used in cloth diapering (for the waterproof covers) and wanted to use wool as a replacement. I couldn't find any yarns marketed as "humane" and I remember emailing Peace Fleece asking what they knew about the treatment of the animals used to make their yarns. I got a long and friendly email back from Peter, the co-founder. There wasn't much he could tell me about the animals on the farms, but that they tried to buy from small farms in struggling economies or war torn countries. He visits the farms and farmers himself in Russia and the middle east. The idea behind the company was so mindful that although it wasn't exactly what I was looking for, I figured it was as close as I was going to come, for then. I cast on in a beginning knitting class at a now-closed yarn store and knit my first soaker. It was too scratchy of course, for baby wear and I ripped it long ago. I finally figured out what to do with the yarn. The yarn that started my interested in knitting and then spinning and then dyeing and felting and textiles in general.

As it is not next to skin soft I had to think for a bit, if four years is "a bit". I wanted it to be something ultimately for Super M as it began as his yarn. So, for next December (and hopefully many Decembers after) he will have his own stocking.

That is, if I finish it in time. I'm knitting it with irregular stripes in a simple stockinette with heel flap, etc. It will be as big as the yarn lets it (hence the irregular striping-I'm going to let myself get down to the end with this one). I've only got, what? 10 months left to finish?