Alrighty, I think this is done (read, I really should stop spending so much time playing with it and do real work) and I know I am delighted with it. Now, let's see if I can answer a few questions/make a few plans.⁠ 1) Will I show you the whole sweater? Probably not. I don't do pictures of clothes on me, the dressforms I have are not the right size to show the sweater off well, and taking a picture of a sweater laid out flat that looks anything other than awful does not seem to be a skill I [...]

Embroidery doodles continue to be amusing... But forward progress has been somewhat hindered by the supervisory efforts of Miss Fizzy. Work will resume when she decides she has other places to be.

We all know I'm not a sweater knitter.  Sweater wearer yes, sweater knitter no.  And while I have no desire to knit my own sweaters, I do occasionally want to, shall we say customize, the cozy, comfy, easy, store-bought sweaters I wear so often. It started with mending, because why not fix what you have if you can.  Then it moved on to things like adjusting the band at the bottom of a sweater (the band that causes a sweater to draw in at precisely the point my body flares out, the appeal of which I will never understand) or [...]

So, the sweater from the other day? The one rescued from the ravages of kitten brutality?  Here it is all mended (you can watch me do some of that over on instagram if you're so inclined). And here it is with the neckline adjusted so I like it better for me (you can watch me do some of that too). And just because this stuff is important to say, here is your bonus reminder that you should absolutely have your neckline wherever you want.  Anyone who tries to make you feel bad about how much or how little skin you [...]

That top I started to fix a few weeks ago? Yeah, here's attempts two (ripped out) and three (the winner). So in case you don't happen to follow my every word with breathless attention, this is the neck opening of a sweater. It's open a bit farther down than I'd like, so I wanted to close it up a bit. I started by trying to just stitch it freehand (that was the post from a few weeks ago), but things shifted around a bit too much, so I stuck it in an embroidery hoop to hold everything still. That helped [...]

This is going to be fun. Well, not this. This is about to get picked out. But then I'm going to do it again more carefully, and I think that will be fun.⁠ You see, I have a sweater with a neckline that's a bit lower than I like. And it would be the perfect sweater if only the neckline were just an inch or two higher.⁠ So I'm going to fix it.⁠ I started by putting it on and experimenting with a pin and a mirror to figure out where I wanted the neckline to fall. And it turns [...]

Here's that little shoulder patch after it's gone through the washer (and dryer...pajama sweaters do not generally get air dried folks). Take a look at the difference between freshly mended and after several washes. I actually like it much more now that the yarn has plumped up and fuzzed out a bit, so I am super happy with this. But it is a beautiful example of...wait for it...why swatching and blocking are so damn important. Bear with me here. Swatching is to let you know how your fabric is going to behave before you go to the trouble of knitting [...]