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doesn’t get nearly as much press as Thing 3.  This has been her fear ever since, 4 1/2 years ago, Thing 3 entered the scene.  Thing 2 was the princess.  Thing 2 wouldn’t be seen wearing pants.  Thing 2 was all about butterflies, lavender, and sugar & spice.

After Thing 3 came along, Thing 2’s spice went from, um, confectioner’s sugar (yes, I know, not a spice, but bear with me), to curry.  She’s a tween and totally complex.  I think Thing 3 ushered in this complexity, laced with a bit of noir, earlier than necessary.  It’s taken the Things and DH and I some time to get used to this newer, grimmer Thing 2.

Maybe a new knit would help.  Thing 2 needed a new knit.  The beret didn’t quite cut it.   So about 2 weeks ago, Thing 2 tagged along to the store, moaning and groaning all the way.  She picked out the Alchemy Promise.  In Cookie Monster Blue.

Tah-dah:

A simple top down raglan.  It used only one skein (making it both easier on the wallet and easier on the eyes)!  Size 7’s, about 4 st. to the inch.  A week from start to finish.  Fits like a glove and she hasn’t taken it off (really, she slept in it one night).

The smile–well, that’s about as big as it comes from Thing 2–but you can tell she’s pleased.  Me, too (counting my blessings that new knits still have the power to please).

this is a trend that deserves more press.  I heart the cowl.  I heart scarves too.  In a previous life, I must have been attacked by a vampire, cuz I’m all about covering up my neck.  Turtlenecks.  Scarves wrapped around so many times, and now the cowl.

I’ve got a few cowls hanging out in the shop.  On election night, I cowled away at this:

The Darkside Cowl (rav link).  I’ve discovered that I like a tighter cowl.  I reallio trulio hate draughts on my neck.  Darkside is a nice closer fit.  The pattern was not tricky, even though on election night, I was pins and needles until they called Ohio, and there are a few errors in my knitting.

After my success with Darkside, I moved onto Jenny Watson’s Noro book.  This just has some adorable patterns, and I quickly whipped up this:

This is Design 12.  I only had a teensy bit of yarn leftover.

Yes, this is cutting it close.  In fact, I had to modify the collar to take this into account.  However, this is not the fault of the pattern.  My gauge was at 4 to the inch when the pattern called for 4 1/2, and even though I was on 8s and coulda moved down to 7s, I felt that the knitted fabric was about as tight as I wanted it.  I shoulda paid more attention, but I’m happy with the end result.  I will probably do this again, in a non-stripey yarn so that I’ve got a cute cardi for the office that looks not so stripey.  Again, this falls in the “not so professional” category (one day I’ll figure all this “professional dress” thing out. In the meantime,  Design 12 will live at Modern Yarn).  Feel free to visit.