If you are going to make only one summer sweater, it should be Love Note! It works so well in cotton and looks so cute with 3/4 length sleeves. I think it would look darling with cap sleeves too. If you're not sure you want an oversized look as per pattern, Love Note looks just as good with zero to little ease. I was in between the 34" and 38" sizes. I knit the 38" and used a thinner yarn with a gauge of 20 sts. per 4 inches instead of 16 sts and got a 35.5" bust. I did not pick up stitches to finish the neck and instead left it as a wide, rolled stockinette edge. I gave the sleeves and hem the same edge. I love white summer sweaters and imagine I'll wear this more than any other sweater this summer.
About the yarn, I love Rowan Handknit Cotton so much. It's a worsted weight 100% super soft cotton that is easy on the hands. I pop my Handknit Cotton sweaters in and out of the washer and dryer and love how they last year after year. This yarn is a great performer and is very well priced.
How are you? We are so fortunate that for us sheltering in place has only been inconvenient and annoying. I know everyone is searching for their silver linings in all this, and I hope you've found many. Our silver lining search has been easy--we are Carter's day care. We've become so close to him these last several months and are truly having so much fun. On our way home from our morning walk today my husband and I were laughing out loud at the things he says.
Carter's big love is street sweepers. Whenever we hear a big truck we dash outside. Twice we have lucked out to see a street sweeper in action! This prompted more questions than we could answer so we went on YouTube for street sweeper videos. I was flabbergasted to see hundreds of them! Who knew? He prefers the technical sales videos that are made by the manufacturer to show you in great detail why this is the street sweeper you should buy for your city. He also loves one that is a montage of different sweepers working to the tune of a catchy street sweeper rap song. He's a bit picky about his street sweepers and has a preference to where the brushes and water jets are placed and how the vacuum should work. Now when we take our walk, there's a little 2.5 year old boy sitting in a stroller, waving his arms around critiquing the street sweeper's work, frowning and finding fault at what he sees, and wondering aloud if the street sweeper really did his best job. He is too much.
We spend our days singing and play-acting The Itsy Bitsy Spider and Humpty Dumpty. I've become an expert at making wee spiders out of clay or beads and pipe cleaners and drawing Humpty Dumpty faces on Easter eggs that dutifully break when thrown on the ground. The other day he asked for the Easter box to be brought down and I moaned and asked if he was going to make a big mess. He answered with a forlorn look, "Yes Grammy. I'm afraid I will make a big mess." Oh well, at least I was warned!
We have a pink plastic hand-me-down toy kitchen that has been in our family room for the last two years. Carter played with it often but had recently started to ignore it. I almost passed it on to the next grandchild in our group of friends, but at the last minute decided to give it a new life and take it outside. Now he loves it again! I fill up a few buckets with water and he makes lovely mud pies, cups of coffee, and yesterday made a platter of taco meat of all things! He's really turned out to be an excellent short order cook and will whip up anything you ask for. I sit on the patio and knit and chat with him while he slaves at the stove. When he's finished with his culinary play I take off his clothes outside and dip him in the kitchen sink for a little swish. He told me now he won't need a bath before bedtime. I said, "No, this is just to get the chunks of dirt off; you'll still need a real bath when you get home." The next time we were at the sink he told me, "Grammy, don't use soap--just get the big chunks of dirt off. I have to do this again tonight with mommy and daddy." He slays me. I must laugh a hundred times a day.
Most days we walk to the grammar school that is closed for students but still open for walkers and anyone really, although there's only the same few people when we go late morning. We regularly see the same guy shooting hoops and wave to the guy practicing fly fishing. We're the older couple who come each morning with their tiny grandson. We run up and down the tiny grassy hills that must look like great giant mountains to him. We run and run and I feel it's great exercise for the both of us. My favorite game is something he invented called Hug. Carter runs very far away and I bend down on my knees and hold my arms open wide. When he says GO, he runs super fast into my arms and we collapse into a hug. Oh my. Be still my heart. I love this little boy so much. So with every cloud comes a silver lining and our silver lining is a darling two-year old boy.
Be well friends. xx Kristen
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It doesn't often work and it's a wee bit wonky when it does,
but I appreciate it when you try!
You can make a comment by clicking here or scrolling down.
It doesn't often work and it's a wee bit wonky when it does,
but I appreciate it when you try!
- May 29, 2020
- 16 Comments
