Knitty Couture

The heat of St. Louis summers is just nutty!  I swear, you would think there must be some degree difference between the shade and the direct sun, but there seems to be none.  I especially enjoy the occasional 5-minute downpours with the blazing sun following closely behind to give us that nice jolt of super-humidity. What do you think?

For the month of June, I’ve been in constant battle with this little thing.  What should have taken a few days to knit took me nearly a month.  After three do-overs (twice from the end back to the start), I can now say it is perfect, and I probably won’t knit another BSJ for at least a year.

The initial plan was to omit the cuff increases, but this resulted in the front riding up higher than the back.  Plan B began with increasing the front at each end section to make up for the cuff non-increases which ended in disaster.  Plan C, which should have been Plan A, had me rip back to the very beginning and just inserting those damn cuff increases.  I think the BSJ was punishing me because at 6 rows to finishing, I discovered I had only increased on one cuff.  So I ripped once again and started over.  Isn’t it beautiful??

Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Baby Surprise Jacket
Source: Single pattern available or in The Opinionated Knitter
Yarn: Creatively Dyed fingering
Needles: US 4 addi lace

In addition to the heat, my unexpected battle with the BSJ had also significantly stalled my knitting of the June socks - just turned the heel for these yesterday. These knee-highs will probably not be done by midnight Tuesday to qualify them as June socks but oh, well.  I still like them, anyway!  These will be for my sister who luckily, has the same size feet as I do.  Makes the sizing so much easier.

I also forewent knitting my socks a few times to spin, which I’ve not done in such a long time.  After giving several spinning lessons and demonstrations, I realized I sorely missed it and spent evenings (into the wee hours) while hubby was away and spun.  Given how devoted I had become in those three nights, I was surprised to not have been visited by Rumpelstiltskin.