So accomplished

There's nothing like cooking a perfect turkey to make you feel like an accomplished cook! Even better when it's the first time you've done it!

(Although maybe it was just beginner's luck...) (also, please ignore the rack on which the turkey is sitting - I couldn't work out how to get the turkey off it and onto the plate - so we just moved the whole thing!)

We had friends over for christmas lunch today and we decided to try doing a turkey. I've never really been a huge fan of turkey, as pretty much every turkey I've had in the past has suffered from dry turkey syndrome. Not my turkey! So moist and juicy and tender. It really was the best turkey I've ever had, and I'm not just saying that because I cooked it! I did make sure I got a nice crispy bit of skin too.

I've got two christmas specific recipe books (Nigella and Donna Hay) so I read up on their turkey recommendations. Nigella soaks hers in "brine" for two days beforehand, which wasn't going to work for me for various logistical reasons. So I went with Donna Hay, but following Nigella's timings for my 6kg bird.

What's the secret? Well, I don't know why my turkey turned out so well, but I followed the recipe pretty much exactly, so I guess that's the secret. Lots of butter between the breast skin and meat (tell you what, carefully separating the skin from the meat with your fingers is a very odd business, only beaten really by then stuffing dobs of butter back in there!). Sit the turkey on a rack in the baking tray, and fill the bottom of the tray with chicken stock, and baste every hour or so with the stock/juices mixture (would have done half hour, but couldn't fit that in with the other prep jobs I had to do!).

And there wasn't much left, always a good sign! We should have enough pickings for turkey bubble and squeak for lunch tomorrow I think! Thanks to Fiona for doing the veg, Sue for the dessert and Jack for the champagne - truly a great joint effort christmas lunch.

Red red reddy red Rudy

I decided I wouldn't torture myself (or my friends/relations) this year by doing any Christmas knitting - with one small exception - I'm not sure why I made this exception, maybe subconsciously I'm trying to demonstrate to non-knitters that knitting is (a) cool and (b) useful. Although I suppose "cool" and "useful" are all relative!

Anyway, I made this for my parents group secret santa (we had a Christmas get-together on the weekend - nice - because we got to meet the dads - well, except of course for the couple of dads that come to group every week!)


Details
Pattern: Rudy by Elaine Fitzpatrick - an easy knit/purl bib with Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. The pattern is free but is written - so I spent a little bit of time charting it before I knit it - so much easier to follow. I particularly like the short row shaping at the bottom edge, to give it that nice curved edge.


Instead of doing i-cord ties for the bib, I knit a neck strap with buttonhole in garter stitch and sewed a button on the other side - I think buttons are (slightly) easier than trying to tie a bib on a wriggling baby.

Yarn: Peaches and Cream worsted cotton - in red (but of course!) - about 50g


Sticks: 4mm bamboo straights (old skool!). Bit tight knitted worsted cotton on 4mm sticks, but it does make a good thirsty fabric, which is what you want in a bib. And it won't really stretch either, also good for a gift for a non-knitter!


Time: 25 November - 4 December 2010


Little Sophie was the lucky (?) baby who received this gift (which I wrapped with a couple of books - can never have too many books for babies and kids, I think). Her mum seemed to really like it, and told me at group the week after that she was going to make it into a little Christmas lolly bag once it's use as a bib was done, by sewing a piece of fabric on the back. Which I thought was an excellent idea!

It's called procrastination...

So back in July (omg, was it really July??) I asked for opinions on a hat I'd made.

It took me until mid-November to put into action my decision - which was to keep it - I turned the brim up and stitched it in place with a few small stitches. I thought about adding a big button for trim, but decided I could use a brooch (and change it as my mood takes me).

I think it's ok...

Details

Pattern: A Better Bucket Hat by Amy Swenson, with modifications by raveller Solaris.

Yarn: Colinette Iona in Ginger Cinnabar - about 70g and because I didn't think I'd have enough of the Iona, Malabrigo Worsted in Sealing Wax - about 25g. I used the Malabrigo for the turned under part of the brim (which is knit first). I think, as it turns out, I would have had enough of the Iona, but I quite like the contrast of the orangey red Malabrigo with the ginger Iona.

Sticks: 4.5mm bamboo 40cm circular and bamboo dpns for the top of the hat decreases. I forgot to change needle sizes for the body of the hat, which would have made it a bit less slouchy. Oh well...

Time: 10 July 2010 - 16 July 2010 (for the knitting) - then another, oh, 10 minutes on 14 November to sew in ends and stitch up the brim! Yep, it's called procrastination, and I am an expert at it!

Modifications: the popular mods by Solaris are designed to make the brim stand out a bit more than the original pattern - I'm sure it would have worked for me if I'd only read them properly and changed needle sizes! I also did a provisional cast on to make the fixing down of the turn under brim easier (knit it as you go, rather than seaming it at the end).

And it only took me a month after finishing it to actually blog it! At least I can wear it next winter! And it's one WIP down in my WIP-athon, weeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Keeping Track - November 2010

A day late, sorry! I took advantage of a break in the rain we've been having since (it seems like) forever, to take some photos for this post, because there have been a few in's this month. Fortunately, most of them were gifts, and gift yarn doesn't count, right!

This lot was my birthday present to myself:
I accidentally (heh!) hit a wollmeise update a month or two ago, and managed to score a couple of colours I've been wanting for some time - Sabrina and Ruby Thursday. And a couple of Vamp (a newer red, which I couldn't leave behind) and to make up my order to 5 skeins (most economical for postage!) I got a skein of My Old Blue Jeans as well. Why not!


And this lovely group comprise gifts from some lovely friends:

The large ball on the left is Cashmere laceweight, a bloggy prize from Jen. Across the top is handdyed laceweight from The Granny Square in Newtown, a gift from JP. Underneath that is alpacky laceweight from MissFee, and the small blue skein and larger skein below it is Margarita's handspun! How clever is she!


And this lot I bought - so it does count - but you know, it's a discontinued red 8ply cotton from Bendigo - I just missed buying some before they discontinued the colour (darn them!!) and I happened to mention this to JP and she came through with the goods!! She had a spare few balls and was happy to destash them to me, weeeeeeeeeeeee!

And since they are big balls (heh! Why yes I am a juvenile at heart) - 200g each - that makes a lot of 50g equivalents in the "in" column. Not that I regret it at all!


In: 12 x 50g
Out: 5 x 50g
YTD: +36.5 x 50g balls (or 3.5 balls per month!)

Even though we don't do Thanksgiving here...

So within five minutes of getting up from our nap this morning, I had changed a poo nappy and had baby vomit all down my top (and when I say "all down my top", I don't mean the front of my top, I mean INSIDE my top ...)

Despite the poo-and-spew start to the morning, I am thankful for the following:

1. Connor managed to miss his clean clothes entirely (of course he did!)

2. I had not yet had a shower

3. My mum is staying this week so after I fed the little horrorhead I could have a nice long shower and even wash my hair

4. Shoes, and yarn. When all else fails, I can always be thankful for shoes and yarn!

Speaking of shoes, since so many asked, this is the source of my recent acquisition (which are Liz Claiborne, by the way). The shoes on the site are probably last seasons (or even the season before - I have no idea!), but since "the season" is no longer an issue for me (and never really was, heh) I don't mind!

SHOESday: Parity Party!

So for the last month or so, Australians who like to buy stuff on the internet from the US have been having a bit of a parity party, because our dollar has been close to, at or even over the US dollar! I don't know if this has ever happened since our dollar was floated! (It definitely wasn't when husby and I were in the US a few years ago - I think our dollar bought about US0.75 - bummer!)

I thought about buying lots of yarn but I refrained. I am so strong! (heh!!)

But I did buy a pair of shoes - they really were a bargain! And have a return shipping address in Australia in the event they don't fit. Lucky I don't need it!

I normally don't go for shoes with a lot of white on them - except for sneakers.

But I reckon these qualify as sneakers - wedge heeled sneakers! Ha! I love them! So comfortable! Just like sneakers but a teeny bit more dressy - and can be worn with a skirt, weeeeee!

Happy half-birthday to the little dude

Today is Connor's half-birthday. Unbelieveable! Six months has gone by in a flash with so many changes in such a short time:

-he's in his third set of clothes (0000 lasted for 4 weeks, 000 for 2 months, and the 00 have now lasted 4 months and still seem to be ok). Thanks to the friends who gave us hand-me-down clothes, I've only had to buy him about 4 things (plus bibs and singlets). Hand-me-downs are the best!

-he's got 2 teeth - both bottom teeth, which came through 6 weeks ago, with a minimum of fuss - I didn't even know they were coming until he chomped down on my finger one day (and I just need to say - owwww! those things are SHARP!)

-he's grabbing things (like my fingers!) and stuffing them straight into his mouth. Especially his clothes.

-and for the last few weeks, his feet! He was pretty happy when he discovered his feet. And that he could put them in his mouth. Oh to be that flexible...

-In fact, I could probably do away with all his toys and just give him little socks and facecloths to play with.

-he's lost and regrown the hair off the top of his head

-he's started eating food! apple, pear, banana, avocado (he didn't like that much!), blueberries, yoghurt, potato, pumpkin, sweet potato, corn, peas, zucchini and broccoli. I'm having fun cooking things up and pureeing them, even though the sound of the blender thingy makes him cry!

-the vacuum also makes him cry. That's my excuse anyway!

-he's rolled over twice from his front to his back (I think the weight of his HUGE head pulled him over) and once from his back to his front (which of course I missed, as I was in the shower!)

-he giggles and laughs at the strangest things, and babbles away to us quite seriously (often when he is supposed to be sleeping - like tonight!)

I converted the pram from the basinette to the seat a week or so ago, and put him in it to adjust the seat straps - he LOVED it! I couldn't get a non-blurry picture, he was so excited to sit up and look around, he really is quite a social little fella. (Especially when he's meant to be sleeping ... hmmm, I think there's a pattern there)

Happy half-birthday my lovely little dude.

Oh, Dick!

This is really my keeping track post for October, but I couldn't resist the alternate title for this post, because looky what I received for my birthday (it's an early present) from DrK:

Lovely lovely dpn holder and interchangeable needle bag made by the talented seamstress (and knitter!) RandomKnits.

I had a lot of fun stuffing them too:

And well stuffed they are! Of course, many of my interchangeable needles are in use (heh heh) so it would otherwise be even fuller of needles. And you can't see it in the photos, but there is a handy dandy zipper section behind the needle slots, for the cables, keys, needle sizer etc. So very clever and neat and much nicer than the placky cases you get with the needle sets!

All this is a way of making up for there being no photos of new yarn this month. Why? Because there was no new yarn this month! weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

So my totals are a little more healthy:

In: No new yarn! (for a change!)

Out: 6 x 50g balls of yarn (half of those were given to my mum for her charity knitting,lest you think I've somehow becoming a knitting speedster this month)

YTD: +29.5 x 50g balls (or almost 3 balls in per month, on average)

WIP-athon 2010-2011

I'm not sure if many of you look at my WIP list there is the sidebar (I kinda hope not many!) but it is embarrassingly long. So a little while ago I decided to do something about it. Nothing radical, mind, like only knitting on WIPs until they are all done. Because that's clearly doomed to failure - if I had that kind of focus and stick-to-it-ness, I wouldn't have so many WIPs in the first place!

So what I'm going to do is formalise my commitment to a WIP-athon for 2010-2011 (and possibly 2012, if it takes that long!) by openly promising on this here blog to "WIP one, start one". In other words, finish a WIP, start a new project. Finish the new project, then finish a WIP. Repeat until WIPs are done. And don't allow any of the new projects to become a WIP! Of course if I'm feeling particularly virtuous, I may even finish two WIPs in a row!

Is anyone with me?

I started my WIP-athon with the Shaped Lace Tee. Once I got that out of the way, I was allowed to cast on for my Olive (you'll recall I swatched for her back in August). I needed to modify the pattern and do some maths, so I spent a couple of days researching other projects on Ravelry and crunching the numbers, and then I started. Using the Noro Silk Garden sock for the contrast in the yoke.

And this project is perfect for my knitting life right now - miles and miles of stocking stitch in the round that I can pick up and put down so easily. And I do love this pattern and yarn.

I just hope it fits me ... and doesn't take forever to knit! Have you seen the size of my queue in Ravelry lately??!!

It's been a long time coming

Remember RoseRedia Jones' excavation about a month ago? The main reason (apart from the pressing need to actually tidy it up) for that expedition was to find one of my most long-standing WIPS - the Shaped Lace Tee, which I started in January 2008 (!!). With summer looming, I decided it was time to get it off the sticks and off my WIP list.

Especially since all I needed to do was knit the pathetically small cap sleeves and then block and seam it!

Which I have now done, weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Details

Pattern: Shaped Lace Tee by Joan McGowan Michael, from Knitting Lingerie Style. I believe this is the same pattern as her Krista Tee, which is sold separately on her website. A really nice pattern in a wide range of sizes.

Yarn: Rowan Calmer in Khaki (sh 474), just a smidge over 4 balls (!!). I had 5 balls of this lovely yarn, and I really thought I'd be pushing it to make this pattern. I swatched (twice!), couldn't get gauge and so did the maths to work out I needed to make the next size up to get the right size for me. With hindsight, I wish I'd gone two sizes up, as I would have had enough yarn and it would have given me a bit more wiggle room.

This yarn really stretches! Great for anything fitted like this pattern, because you don't really need any shaping, the yarn does that work for you.

Sticks: 5mm KnitPicks Harmony Options

Time: January 2008 - 1 October 2010. And it even fits me!

Modifications: Vey little - I did a 3-needle bind-off for the shoulder seams and that's it. Although if I were to make this again, I would make the sleeve caps wider - they are riculously narrow. They do work, but I'd just give myself a bit more room up there. I'd also possibly do a ridge of garter stitch (or three) around the bottom, as I think it will curl (even more) with wear.

I really like the square neckline finished with a round of crochet, very flattering for my body shape. If only my bust was as perky and my hips as narrow as Dolores the Dummy, my stunt double ... lucky this yarn s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-s (did I mention that already?)!

Get the good scissors out!

Get the good scissors out:

It's time to sssssssssttttttttttteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!


The tutorial at our monthly guild meeting this month was on steeking, lead by members M-H and Sandra. I've never done it, and quite frankly the thought of cutting my knitting scared the crap out of me! Cutting something that I'd spent hours and hours knitting - in fairisle - gaaaaaahhhhh!


I know others have done it - and I admired their bravery - but I never really thought I could do it.



Until now!

We all did our homework (knitting a tube in a fairly easy fairisle pattern), ready to learn how to reinforce the knitting before bringing out the good scissors. I was the only stupid person to use 4ply/fingering yarn - I don't know why I didn't use 8ply/DK, which would have made for a bigger tube and less knitting required. I suppose I always think of finer yarn when I think of fairisle (it would be too too hot to wear a double strand 8ply garment here) and I had this yarn left over from my endpaper mitts, so that's as far as my thinking went when choosing yarn!

Anyway, I had a bit of an experiment with my fairisle - reversed the colours for the middle section, and for the top section I reversed the yarn carried over the top (at bottom, I carried the brown over the green, at top I carried the green over brown) - I think the top looks better. Yarn dominance in action!

The tutorial was excellent! M-H and Sandra have come up with an alternate way to reinforce the steeked section using crochet - the method most commonly used has you crochet on either side of the area you will cut (the double width brown strip in the centre of my sample), while their method (the WestWard method!) has you crochet on either side of the entire steeked area, thus creating a kind of selvege edge and reducing bulk on the very edge. (The red stitches are the crocheted reinforcement).

I initially grumbled about this method, as I found it the way of crocheting very awkward, but once M-H showed me how to do it more easily, I saw the light! And soon I was going for the scissors and it only took a few seconds and my tube was now a flat piece of knitting! Weeeeeeeeeeee!

I thought I'd chosen a relatively sticky yarn, but I discovered after cutting that it was not really sticky at all! So I think if I was to use a non-Shetland yarn for fairisle, I'd either crochet right on the steek area, to ensure it can't unravel, or I'd use the WestWard method but also machine sew closer to the steek edge, for double security!

Thanks to M-H and Sandra, I now have the confidence to actually try this out on a full-size garment! Yay for Growth As A Knitter!

Keeping Track - September 2010

I was doing ok this month...until I was handed the chance to have a personal shopper, of sorts, at the Wollmeise shop in Germany, thanks to AuntyToots, who made a special trip there on her honeymoon. I've long admired the colourwork done by many talented knitters using Wollmeise, and in particular the undyed yarn paired with any of the vibrant coloured yarns - I don't know how often the undyed yarn comes up in the shop updates, so I took the opportunity so kindly offered and now am the proud owner of two undyedskeins of Wollmeise. Weeee! Thanks Helen!

And my other purchase this month was a single ball of Noro Silk garden sock yarn, which was bought for a project I'm very excited to be starting in October.

And even though prize yarn doesn't count, I can't not show off this lovely stuff - 8ply/DK Patonyle (it's more of a deep tealy/jade green than this picture shows)! Thanks Leonie!

On the outs I didn't do so well -socks take a long time to knit and don't use much yarn! Hopefully I'll do better on the outs next month!

In: 8 x 50g balls

Out: 1.5 x 50g balls

YTD: 35.5 x 50g balls - woops, my monthly average has gone up...almost 4 balls per month.

And for a change...

And for a change, here's another FO!

A while ago (November last year!), I was visiting with my buddy D, who, in a fit of optimism, had bought the yarn and pattern to crochet a scarf for her daughter. In a similarly inspired fit of optimism, I offered to do it for her, because we all know crochet is quick, and the scarf only used 2 balls of 8ply/DK weight yarn.

Yeah, you already know how that turned out, just by the date of this post! But now it's done, huzzah!

Details

Pattern: Aroma by Donna Yacino, published by Berroco. A crochet scarf using a pretty motif and bands of filet or basic shell crochet between the motifs.

The pattern is relatively easy, but has that annoying "at the same time" business which tripped me up more than once. It's also completely written, and could have benefitted by using charts. I also think it could have been written to avoid some of the cutting and rejoining of the yarn (and thus minimising the number of ends to be sewed in). And finally, if I was to make it again, I'd also make it symmetrical - ie work from both ends into the middle. That's a relatively minor quibble though.

Yarn: 2 x 50g balls of Berroco Latitude, a very interesting cotton/rayon yarn comprised of many plies of slightly variegated yarn all wrapped with a fine strand of a darker colour. It's a mite stiff to crochet with but I think will wear nicely. It is slightly difficult to sew the ends in however! I imagine if you were knitting with it, especially stocking stitch, you'd probably have to separate the plies to sew them in in a way that avoids bulk.

Hook: 4mm

Time: 2 December 2009 - 30 August 2010. But really, this is a project which could be completed in a few days - I finished one ball of yarn some time ago (probably January) then got sidetracked, until mid-August, when I finally got it out again, after a timely prompt from D!!

Note on pattern: Interestingly, the pattern specifies 3 balls of yarn are required. I had some left from the 2 balls I used (not enough for additional motifs though). And I made the pattern exactly as specified, getting a length of 136cm/53".

You can see from the pattern picture however that the filet/shell sections between the motifs are much longer than the pattern calls for (with a specified total length of 158cm/62"). Clearly that's where the extra yarn went! Bit of a fail though on the part of someone at Berroco! Good way to add length though, if you want to, without making extra motifs.

The Adventures of RoseRedia Jones

In which our intrepid archeologist, RoseRedia Jones, undertakes a dig in the region of KnittingBasket...

It was the Spring of 2010, when RoseRedia Jones decided it was time to explore KnittingBasket, in the corner of LoungeRoom, right beside Knitter'sChair. Armed with only a few rudimentary but useful tools (hands, camera), this is the sight that faced RoseRedia:

Taking a slow and methodical approach, RoseRedia cleared away the first layer of debris, consisting mainly of the most recent items belonging to the Knitter which she discovered were termed WIPS. Also the Notions Pouch, which appeared to see a great deal of use.

More WIPS were discovered on the next layer, these appeared not to have seen any action for some few months.

The next layer revealed even older WIPS, and Sock Blockers, which clearly had not been used for at least 4 months. Also apparent on this layer were partial used balls of yarn, clearly discarded in the Knitter's eagerness to move onto the next project.

RoseRedia also discovered next to KnittingBasket a separate box, which appeared to contain even older WIPS, many of which had not seen action for about a year. RoseRedia assumed this Knitter had a problem termed Startitis (and also, Messiness).

The lowest sub-stratum of the KnittingBasket revealed a hodgepodge of used and unused patterns, yarn labels, further partial balls of yarn, and various cords and knitting sticks.

RoseRedia felt a certain sense of achievement when she finally reached the bottom of KnittingBasket and WIPBox. She may have also had to confront her fear of spiders, even though of only the DaddyLongLegs variety, but fortunately, there was no evidence of her greatest fear, the moth.

She sat back to carefully note the discoveries and treasures revealed by the dig:

Yarn: 7 partial balls, 2 full cones, 8 full balls

Project bags: 7 empty

Ziplock bags: 14 plus 3 which were damaged or dirty beyond repair

Patterns: 9 used, 1 in use, 2 unused

Computer cables: 3 with a known use, 2 with an unknown use or origin

1 double adapter

1 finished dishcloth just requiring ends to be sewn in

1 booklight, apparently used for knitting in the car in the dark

1 Knitter's Guild newsletter

WIPS: 14

1 Vogue Knitting Reference book

Many pairs of knitting needles and dpns

1 Samurai Sudoku puzzle book

1 2008 taxpack (!!)

RoseRedia carefully sorted and replaced all that was salvagable and required for use within KnittingBasket and WIPBox, in the hope that the Knitter would both appreciate these efforts and recommit to finishing some of those WIPS.

Tune in next time for an update on the Knitter's progress...

Bellybellybellyphant!

I realised a while ago I had failed to knit a red garment for Connor! I had to rectify this immediately (it certainly wasn't due to a lack of red yarn in the stash!). I wanted a quick and easy pattern and so searched Ravelry for seamless raglan type cardigans - and found this pattern and couldn't resist the elephants marching around the belly!

Details

Pattern: Bellyphant by Jennifer Little - a bottom up seamless raglan cardigan, available in 3 sizes. It actually has stripes all the way up the body and sleeves (above the elephants) but I decided to keep it plain, so I didn't have to fuss about matching the stripes on the sleeves to the body (not that it would have been too difficult, but I'm all about the easy-ness at the moment, pretty much). Also I had enough of the red yarn for the whole garment. As I was using 4ply/fingering yarn, rather than 5ply/sport, I made the 6-9 mo size, to try to ensure a 3-6 mo size outcome.

This was my first time working fair isle flat. It wasn't too bad, but I did only have to do it for 11 rows. I'm not sure I'd like to do it for a whole garment. Some of the floats were quite long (longer than for "traditional" fair isle) so I had to catch them as I was knitting.

Yarn: Patons Patonyle in red (from the Mill Shop, via MissFee - thanks!) - about 80g, and Patons Patonyle in grey (col 0068) - only about 5g. This is a staple sock yarn, sturdy and machine washable - and long used for baby garments in Australia too. And both from the stash! And the buttons from stash too! (I do have to sew another 2 buttons on, but I was desperate for Connor to wear this cardigan on Saturday when we were catching up with friends, and I only had time to sew on 4 buttons during our car ride there).

Sticks: 3.25mm KnitPicks Harmony Options - a good idea for this garment, because once you add the sleeves to the body, it helps to use a long cable and kind of magic loop the next few rounds, because the sleeve joining method is a bit tight - which the pattern very nicely warns you about. I also magic looped the sleeves, two at a time. Not my favourite method of working sleeves - it always seems to take longer when working two at once - but it does ensure the increases are in the same place and the sleeves are the same length!

Time: 28 July 2010 - 28 August 2010. Not bad! I really wanted to get this done so it would see Connor out through the end of winter and into spring. Because of course it won't fit him for that long. I can definitely see myself making it again for him next year.

Modifications: None really, except as noted, but if (when) I do make this again, I think I would do it top down rather than bottom up (unless anyone can tell me why that would be a bad idea?). I didn't really like the method for joining the sleeves to the body - using a three needle bindoff for 4 stitches, on each sleeve at the underarm. It leaves big holes on either side of the bind off, which you sew up using the yarn end, which is not a big deal, but it just seemed messy. Not to mention it was difficult to work the first few rounds after that, as the pattern warns. I also confused myself and I think I bound off an extra stitch or two on at least one of the sleeves, because my stitch count was off after attaching the sleeves. I just missed two of the raglan decreases to make up for it.

I'd also knit the sleeves first, thus avoiding having to the cut the yarn at the end of the body so I can use it to do the sleeves, then rejoin it. For a seamless project, I ended up having to weave in 14 ends!!

I am, however, inordinately pleased with how the neck ribbing matched up with the raglan decreases. I don't know if that's an outcome of the pattern writing or just pure luck!

Even though he sicked up on it about 20 minutes after I first put it on him (well, I hadn't blocked it before that first wear anyway, so lucky!), I think Connor approves (must have been the blocking that made the difference!)