Prime Time Knitter: Greensleeves

At long last, the knitting on Ed’s sweater is done. I finished knitting the sleeves, and they’re about to spend the day being blocked.

I hope they dry by this evening so I can start the seams, but if not, there is plenty of finishing to do. I can weave in the ends around the collar, tack the pocket ribbing to the front, and sew on the buttons.

The miserable, unseasonably warm weather that has persisted here for what seems like an eternity (but has only been for about five days) is supposed to end on Wednesday, and so I will not make Ed wear this for a modeling shot on Tuesday, even if I manage to finish it by Tuesday morning. I’ll be leaving for Baltimore too early on Wednesday to post, and so the photo of the FO will probably wait until next week.

Until next week, I’ll be departing from my regularly scheduled projects so I can work on something simple during my train ride to Maryland for Stitches East. These projects are sort-of necessity knitting. They are hats for Ed. He really doesn’t have any decent winter hats, and I have stash yarn for this purpose.

Some years ago, I made the simple but elegant watch cap from Charlene Schurch’s Hats On! book for my son. I used charcoal gray Heilo, and the hat has stood the test of time. It was also the first time I managed to do the tubular (invisible) cast on correctly, and the instructions in that book for doing it are excellent.

The yarns I’m using for Ed’s hats are Heilo (brown) and Morehouse Farm’s 2-strand sport weight (natural). I used this Morehouse yarn before, for the scarf shown in the picture. It isn’t as soft at the 3-strand, but has better stitch definition and wears well. For a simple ribbed watch cap, it will be fine.

I need to cast on for both before I leave, which is really the only challenging part of the hat, and then I should have enough to do while I’m away.

And, when I’m back from Stitches East, it will be time to frog the sleeves on Liv, reknit the caps, reassemble them, and have another FO. It will be dangerous to have all that new yarn when I have committed to three new projects (and their associated KALs) and I'll be getting the yarn for Ed-2, just at the time two big projects are done. But I'm eager, at least right now, to cast on for the Bee Fields shawl and to get another Elsebeth Lavold sweater started for me.