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so last year I started Jasmine, from Kim Hargreaves.  I was using some semi-solid Koigu KPPPM, and the back came out just to-die-for.

I finished this in late August, so I decided to let it marinate for the winter.  Saturday I got the hankering to finish it up, so I dragged it out of its hiding place (which it really was–it took me a good hour to find it, and then another 90 minutes to find the damn book and the correct needles).  I quickly cast on, and away I went.

This morning, I held up the new knitting to compare:

Huh?  The lessons here?  Plenty.  1.  don’t let projects sit for so long.  you no longer have a good enough memory to retain the details.  2.  you’re a loose knitter.  you always go down a size.  take notes on the needles used.  3.   who do you think you’re fooling by knitting a back that small????  You’re freaking 5′10″ for crying out loud.  That back WILL. NOT. FIT.

The back fits gauge (7 st to the inch).  The front is 6 to the inch.  I have a couple of options.

1.  I figured out that I can make the front on the current needles in the XS to get a 37″ finished bust size, which is my size.  And I can do so without ripping out the seed stitch hem which, because i’m a thrower, I absolutely hate.  The down side?  I will have to re-knit the back, seed stitch and all.

2.  I can take out the entire front, reknit the seed stitch hem and everything else in the correct needles to give me the gauge (which is correct).  The downside–will it fit?  I think I was overly optimistic when I started this thing.  So it will need some aggressive blocking.

3.  Frog the entire thing.  Because when it comes down to it, I think the most appealing aspect of this project was the gun metal gray skinny belt on the model.

4.  move on.  Start Raindance instead.

i’ve dropped off the face of the planet, rest assured i haven’t.

I’ve been knitting!  Lots of starts.  Not so many finishes.  Except for Raspberry.

This is a topdown garter stitch yoke pattern adapted from Naganasu on Ravelry.   I liked the aesthetic, but I didn’t like how deep the raglans were, so I shortened them for Thing 3.  Although it’s hard to see here–the pajamas don’t really complete the look.  The unmatching buttons, though, are to die for.  Thing 3 did not want the buttons to match.  In her estimation, this project is a complete success.

The yarn?  It’s the new Blue Sky dyed cotton multis.  The colorways are fabulous.  This one’s the pink/orange combo.  I’m also loving the vibrant blue, so I think I may snag that for my new-to-the-world nephew Kosuke (koh-su-kay).  He was born to my sister-in-law in Japan on April 12.   Yeah for me!  After 6 neices, I finally got a nephew.  Figures he lives a kajillion miles away.  Oh well.

Thing 3’s sweater was a partial birthday gift.  She turned 6 on 4/15.  Here she is with Thing 1 on our way to Holsten’s for a quick and easy dinner.

Thing 2 did not make it into the photo.  She found Thing 3’s bow to be completely embarrassing.  And it was.  It’s a stuffed felt bow glued to a hair comb.  Who, you may be asking, made this lovely accessory?  Why DH of course.  Anyway, the bow was a hit at Holsten’s.  And Broad St.  And Barney’s.