Some other things recently knitted

Thanks for the nice comments on the afghan! I haven't made a huge amount of progress in writing up the pattern yet, but I will, I promise. I'm going to knit a second one, so I'll even have a chance to test it, though that may take a little while.

I've been ill again lately and it's cut down on my posting energy, but I have actually knit a bunch of other things. Here are a couple of them:

This is another Vintage Pixie Cap [Ravelry link], made in the same yarn (different dye lot as it happens) as the one for my friend Lou's daughter. This one is sized larger, 1-2 years, and I can't remember who I made it for yet, so hopefully I'll remember soon and send it to them. I knit 99% of this in Australia but seamed it and put the button on just last week.



I also went back to poor Rob's first pullover (the Spartan Pullover, last seen in great pain). Perhaps you're wondering what happened to it. Well, I re-knit both arms, and sewed one on, and had Rob try it on, and...

The arms were still too crazy darned short.
And I was out of yarn.

I looked. And looked. And LOOKED. But I could not find any other source of the right dye lot of this yarn (Elsebeth Lavold Chunky AL in Merlot, in case you are curious). The only person on Ravelry who had it was not willing to part with any, as she'd bought the bundle of it for a sweater herself, and I don't blame her.

I wrote to various retailers to ask their dye lots. I postponed the problem. Fewer and fewer places even carried the yarn.

Finally, I realized the problem was getting worse rather than better. I ordered a single skein of wrong-dye-lot Chunky AL from a gal on Ravelry , two skeins of a different wrong dye lot from another location, and what turned out to be two of the same different wrong dye lot (did that make sense?) from yet another retailer. I figured I'd use whichever one was closest.

The single skein turned out to be closest. In a way this is good, because it means I'll have 4 of the same different dye lot left, so I can make some other project with it.

I pulled out the sleeves and started over, this time alternating knitting 5 rows from the old yarn, two from the new.

Sleevie!



Now, if you look at this closely, you can see the faint striping or 'beat pattern' of the alternate yarn:
But it's not normally so noticeable. And I think it's going to be FINE. I'm almost done with sleeve #2 (would be done but I made a booboo about 12 rows back, so I have to rip/redo) and then I will sew them in and then ROB WILL FINALLY HAVE A PULLOVER.

And it is about time.