Throwback Thursday

Hey blog!

How are you all doing today?  I'm... middling.

I was wandering my facebook memories this morning when I came across a sweater I made eleven years ago and I got the worst case of second-hand embarrassment for my 11 years younger self.  So, I decided what better thing to do than to share my embarrassment with you guys! ^^

What was baby knitter Jessica knitting on eleven years ago that could have caused such a cringe? This:

It's a drop shoulder Ravenclaw sweater knit out of super bulky big-box craft store yarn.

The sleeves are about 5 inches too long, they are massive, and the entire thing could fit two people, I'm convinced.

I'm... getting less mortified the more I look at it.

For one reason, I spent the ensuing YEARS getting sleeves to fit Zac at the underarm.  He has massive biceps you see, and although these are inches too long, they actually have enough room that he can move his arms and be comfortable in the sweater.

For two reason, this is a sweater.  I knit a sweater.  It was the first adult sweater I ever knit.

That's an accomplishment.

We all start somewhere.

I remember knitting this, by the way, I remember enjoying the heck out of this super bulky yarn.  I knit a lot of things out of it.  I loved how quickly it knit into hats and scarfs.

And eventually I found the other extreme: laceweight shawls and fingering sweaters.

Ironically, this was knit in California, right before we moved to New England.  Before I switched to smaller yarns and smaller needles.

 Zac never did wear this sweater.  I think I tried to sell it on etsy, but who did I think I was kidding? It got relegated to the closet and finally to the uhm.. trash can? after a few more years.  I did save the ravenclaw patch and stuck it on a fancy poncho that I gave to Hazel.

That was years and years ago by the way, before JK Rowling showed her entire ass.

Fuck TERFs.

ANYWAY, back to the present.

I'm stitching pokemon still!

 

(jigglypuff, jiiiiigglypuuuuff!)

This is another one where I got carried away with the black work.  I also switched tools here.  I had been working on it upside down on my frame, and realized that for the bottom row I was going to be unable to use the frame, but the q-snap was actually going to be a better fit.  So from now on you'll notice I'm working on the q-snap, but also I'm no longer looking at the chart upside down!

Here I've finished the 5th row and the 25th page!  5 more pages to go.  They are shorter (and shorter still, spoilers) than the previous rows, and as usual the column down the right edge is narrower than the rest.

So, when I reached the bottom I was out of fabric.  I'm actually 2 rows too short.  oops.  But, as you can see, it doesn't diminish from the rest of it, and I couldn't give a rat's ass at this point.  Anyone who would point it out would be close enough to punch.

Here are the pictures I took yesterday. As you can see, I just finished page 26 yesterday evening!

Four more pages!

Wee!

In knitting news, I haven't gotten a lot of pictures, but I'm making steady progress on my New Year's Eve Cast On:

I'm 4 or so inches down the body.  I am enjoying working on it in the evenings.  At this point the only thing I need to focus on is counting rows, so each stripe is the same height.

Pro-tip: When counting rows for stripes like this, count the stitches live on your needles, because those loops become a row as you knit them.

That's all there is to share, really.  I hope you are staying safe and sane this January.  I'm.. certainly trying to.  We all got COVID last week though. Thankfully they were mild cases.  Thanks Vaccines!

I wonder if I'll be finished with the pokemon next time I see you!  I'm averaging a page every 3-4 days, which means I should be finishing within the fortnight!

How exciting!

Cheers!