First finished object: thanksgiving leftovers. I ate this meal something like six times in a row before we ran out. I like it so much I'm thinking of cooking more already. Please forgive the "just nuked" look here. This is harvest pie of veggies (sweet potato, onion, red/green pepper, broccoli) in a bit of cheddar cheese sauce, accompanied by mashed potatoes and cauliflower (the green bits are parsley).
Second finished object: Rogue is finally finished! This is my first completed sweater, and I'm pleased (overall) with the outcome. I'm sure my skill at setting in sleeves will improve, but there are some design tweaks I should have made to the sweater. I added stitches to the bust and removed them from the waist, but not quite enough for either. It's a bit of a roomy sweater; comfy, but I prefer something more fitted. It also needed a bust dart. While quite a bit of thanksgiving leftovers are stored under the sweater bump in the front, that's actually the hem riding up from lack of a bust dart. (Another indication that I should have put in a bust dart is the folds/pulls that you can see on the sides of my bust.) This sweater is a revalation, though. Who knew that aran-weight sweaters are so warm? I'm going to knit myself another one next week! The yarn (Jo Sharp Silkroad) Aran is fluffy, has great stitch definition, and is altogether wonderful. I used size 8 Denises, changing them to size 6 for the cuffs.
Third (somewhat) finished object: I started the finishing work on Mermaid. There are certainly more ends to weave in than I prefer to contemplate, and the shoulder/collar seams took a while to finish, but I think this is going to be worth it.
I've mocked this up by pinning the sleeves on, so please forgive the wonkiness. I also need to add the icord edging to the front edges, which should add some structure, and add buttons or some sort of pin or tie. (I think a trip to Winsor Button is in order, since I now need buttons for at least three projects.)
I love the curviness of this sweater, but it's not as perfect as I hoped it would be. For one, it needs a bust dart. (Are we sensing a theme here? My next-most-finished sweater does have a bust dart, so I have learned my lesson.) To be fair to myself, the directions are so badly written that I couldn't figure out how to place a bust dart well until I actually knitted the thing. (If you don't like directions like "reverse previous shaping" applied to a long series of varying short-rows and increases, do NOT knit this sweater.) I also had a gauge issue. My gauge tends to loosen as I work on a project. I work to counteract it, and hope that this will fade with experience. Still, one side of Mermaid is slightly longer than the other. I'm hoping that applying the icord trim and aggressive blocking will help disguise this.
This is all a learning process, and I'm feeling that process pretty heavily right now. I've certainly learned a lot, and the sweaters are nice and warm and comfy and nice... but they're not as perfect as I hoped they would be. More cheerily, here's a picture of the cat:
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