Catching up on the Christmas gift knitting…
My youngest brother, in August, sent me this text: Want you to knit me a Christmas present. Ask next time you see me.
I, thinking it was from someone else (a knitting friend named Erika, my brother’s name being Eric and I being too lazy to read the “sent from” properly), thought it was a funny text and ignored it. Then I came across it while looking for a different text and realized who it was actually from. I got really excited and texted Eric that very minute about it. He…neglected to respond. I finally managed to get an answer from him by calling my parents while he had stopped in to visit (Finnegan, of course, not my parents). He wanted….
A Hat.
I tried to get some more specifics out of him, which was harder than trying to spit-splice bamboo, and at last got three essential pieces of information: Grey, beanie-esque, no brim. And so with that I had to roll. This is about mid-October. Plenty of time until Christmas, right? Yep.
Since he asked for a hat, I, naturally, started looking at sweater patterns. I had 10 skeins of Berocco Vintage in Cracked Pepper in my stash – plenty for a sweater and a hat. In early November, I settled on Brownstone by Jared Flood. Mostly stockinette stitch, with a nice shawl collar. I got through the body, up to the sleeve join, in 3 days, using the Cubix needles (they are square). Then I realized that I did not have matching DPNs to knit the sleeves, so I put the project on hold while I waited for the needles to arrive. Fast forward to early December. I drove up to Indiana for my great-grandmother’s funeral, planning to stay through Christmas, so I had to pack ALL the knitting I needed for the next three weeks. I put off working on the sweater, decided on a hat pattern the day before I left and then didn’t feel like knitting for a week.
Once I got started on the sleeves, they went pretty quickly (and, yeah, I ended up working on them in front of Eric, but I told everyone I was knitting a sweater for myself) then the yoke and finally the collar…which I finished up mid-morning on Christmas Eve. Then I remembered I still needed to knit the stinking hat.
I steam-blocked that while the rest of the family was at Mass Christmas morning. But all ends were woven in and everything was wrapped up in time for gift-giving.
He reluctantly let me take a picture later that afternoon.
Both fit perfectly…which I was very pleased about. Knitting for a brother who has not requested one of the knit items is pretty risky.
Patterns: Brownstone by Jared Flood and Bend Hat by Irina Dmitrieva
Yarn: Berocco Vintage Worsted in Cracked Pepper
Mods: I moved the neck opening of the sweater to be higher (level with the bottom of the armscye) and left off the toggles. My gauge was also just a tiny bit tighter, which was okay, because Eric is pretty thin and the smallest size still had a TON of ease built into it.
I haven’t heard if he’s actually worn either item when I’ve not been around to witness it, so… I’m hoping that he wears them when I’m not there to placate.
February 12, 2013 at 9:03 am
The sweater turned out lovely.