Sadness, new yarn and a finish

The devastation in Oklahoma has been so sad.  My heart goes out to everyone experiencing the loss of a loved one, the loss of a home and the loss of a life that felt safe.  As I watch the news I hope that those lovely people, who have lost so much, can find peace and know that the country and the world are praying for them.

On to other things that seem a bit trivial at this time, but life continues to move on, even when it doesn't feel quite right for it to do so.

My yarn order came in from Patternworks yesterday.  There is really nothing more fun then a bag of yarn arriving on your doorstep.  I ordered the colors for the hexagon bag and a few more to once again tackle the Lucy bag from Attic24.  We know how my last one turned out, it was a disaster that I ended up felting trying to salvage it.

Having to wait on yarn makes you have to work on something else.  And boy have I been putting my nose to the grindstone trying to finish this.

This is the Sixteen-Button Cardigan by Cecily Glowik.  I found this pattern in the book Simple Style by Ann Budd.  I need to call mine the Fourteen-Button Cardigan as I only put on 14 buttons, or as it has been known on my blog for quite sometime The Blue Malabrigo Sweater.

 The ribbing at the bottom has some interesting details  It creates a lovely triangle shape on the sides and the back.

This sweater is made from the bottom up even though it looks like a raglan which is made from the top down.  It is made in one piece until the sleeve line.  Once there you start your sleeves up to the point where they will be attached, you then attach the front, a sleeve, the back, a sleeve and the remaining front.  It is once again knit in one piece with the ribbing decreases, which are very simple to do.  

Once you knit up the button bands, which I did in a 4x4 rib not the 5x5 as per the instructions, all you have to do is sew up the arm seams.  It all sounds so easy and effortless now that I am done, but a sweater is a big undertaking, especially for someone like me who lately has a very short attention span.

This sweater is made from Malabrigo Rios, in the colorway Azules which is darker and more vibrant than seen in these pictures.  I think the sun has softened the color, but sun was needed to see the detail.  I simply love this yarn, it is so soft and wonderful to work with.  It is pure merino superwash so it feels beautiful in your hands.  It has a nice weight to it, not heavy at all just yummy, the yarn is just  yummy.

 I used a total of 800 yards for this sweater and that was with making it a bit longer in the torso and arms, I am pretty tall and my arms are pretty long.  It really fits nicely which is a huge bonus after all the time and energy put into making it.  Energy strictly for perseverance not for the actual knitting.  Not a bad sweater to make if you are newish to knitting, the directions are straight forward and there are not a lot of seams to sew up, I am not a fan of seams. That is finished project 19 for me, and adding in the baby blanket I made for my great nephew that is a total of 8,820 yards of yarn used this year. 

Today Max heard that I had written about his little adventure on my blog, he not was not happy. I believe I have seen that look from my teenagers, translated it means, really Mom, could you embarrass me anymore?

Hope you are having a lovely Wednesday.