What a week!

This has been quite a week. First of all, yaiAnn, Stephanie, and I are THRILLED with the response we've gotten for the sew-along. Who'd of thunk there were so many knitters who wanted to sew? It should be a great experience for all of us.

Secondly, I started student teaching fifth grade on Monday. By Tuesday I was exhausted. My master teacher (the teacher who's room I'm in) is a very nice guy, which is great. Getting along with your master teacher is the most stressful part of the whole thing. Of course, there's such a difference between kindergarten and fifth grade that I feel I can't apply anything I learned last semester to this semester. They can actually ask questions! And have discussions! I'm going to be teaching all of the social studies and science classes starting this week - yipes!

I also had a bunch of extra classes and I'm studying for the RICA exam. Somewhere in the madness I managed to finish Jemima.


Pattern - Jemima by Amelia Raitte
Yarn - 9 balls of Elann's Peruvian Sierra Aran in walnut(?), less than 1 ball of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in burgundy, size 4.0 mm and 5.0 mm needles

I like the sweater and I loved knitting with the yarn but I could see how much better it would be in the yarn specified in the pattern, Cashsoft DK. The one thing I loved about the original sweater was the way it draped, and Sierra Aran is a little too thick for that. But, since this was a stash buster, I'm happy with the end product. The only modification I would make is to make the neck smaller, because I feel it's a little too loose. Of course, the true test of a pattern: would I make it again? Yes!

The pattern is straightforward and well written. I would rate it as a advanced beginner pattern, only because it doesn't talk about which decreases to use, seaming instructions, etc. But other than that it's a very easy pattern.

Knitting with the yarn is great, but there are strands of red and white that give it more of a heathered look. If it's sunny tomorrow I'll try to take a good close up photo of the sweater. After I blocked it, it became this great cohesive fabric and all of the stitches evened out. For the trim, I used some leftover yarn I had from this project. I really would have loved to do it in light blue but I thought I should work with what I had.

Rob and I have barely seen each other this week. He was snowboarding until Tuesday, was in Vegas on Wednesday (for work!), had some computer program training every night until 8:30 pm and all day Saturday, and today he went to ride roller coasters at Magic Mountain! He's had quite the week as well. So I knit him a sock.

This is Trekking XXL in color 90. Theresa just finished a pair for her husband in the same colorway. Her's seem to have a bit more pink than mine do, but I have to second her statement that it's a great yarn for a man. So I didn't party last weekend, I knit Rob a sock instead (when will I have time to finish the second one?)