knitting neels

I know this is cheating a bit, but who cares, it’s finished! I haven’t pressed it though, which is why the neckband isn’t behaving itself. Check out my Granny Smith!

Pattern: Granny Smith.

Needles Used: 3.25mm for the hems and 3.5mm for the body.

Adjustments Made: I made the sleeves full length. I just cast on the given amount and knitted for about four inches more than the pattern said to.

Sideline Seam Cheering: Cheryl. We got there in the end!

I wasn’t happy with the way my buttonholes came out, so instead of sewing them up a little tighter, I got my trusty crochet hook out and crocheted around them. It formed a really sturdy hole, much better than my sewing would have. Buttons are thanks to Cheryl and friend from the Saturday knitting group (sorry! I don’t know you’re name!) who came along to Ruban’s after the group and helped me pick out the perfect ones. Aren’t they great?

I probably would have finished this on Saturday instead of yesterday, but I was overcome by exhaustion and spent most of Sunday just sitting. My mum was pretty worried when she came in on Sunday night so I went to the doctor yesterday. I have had a problem with total exhaustion for over a year now. It leaves me open to lots of little infections which is really annoying! So I am getting some blood taken tomorrow and I’m hoping it will come back with either thyroid or iron problems. Fingers crossed for thyroid, because then not only do I have an explanation for why I get so tired, but also for why I can’t control my temperature! I get really, really hot when I’m moving about (eg playing piano) and then deathly cold when I stop moving. I spend a lot of my time putting on and taking off my jumper. My mum and her sisters have thyroid problems so it won’t be a surprise. Mum said it’s easy to help as well, you just take a tablet a day and it’ll slowly start to regulate it. Mad how one dodgy gland can wreck your life! I’m just glad I’m getting it looked after.

And here’s a lesson not to knit when you’re feeling tired and run down! I started this shrug during the week. The construction is very straight forward. You knit two sleeves. Leave some stitches on a holder at the arm pit to pick up later for the neck band. Continue on knitting until you reach the centre back. Repeat this for another sleeve, then seam the two together at the centre back. The joy of this is that you can keep trying on and knitting until you get the right length. Great if you have orangutan arms like me 😀 I had been knitting away like a house on fire during the week and mustered up some strength on Sunday to finally seam the two together. The pattern, from the first issue of Knit Today says to use a three-needle bind off, but I prefer to graft so I got out my big needle and got going…. until the very end of the needle… when I realised I had three stitches too many on one side, and the pattern didn’t match up at all. Not even close enough to fudge it. Solution? Rip both of the sleeves out! Sigh, here we go again.

The good news is that I only had to rip back to where I had the stitches held so I have the first sleeve rectified, and I’m hoping to get the other one done tonight. I have to teach this afternoon but hopefully I will have some energy left when I get in. Nice colour, eh? The pattern called for 4 balls in this shade of Kid Classic, and I could only find 3. I freaked out when I realised that it’s a discontinued colour, but I think I’ll get through it. I have nearly an entire ball left to do the neck band, which is just plain 2×3 ribbing all the way around. I tried it on when I had most of it grafted together and it is very snuggly! I can’t wait until it is finished.