Books, Yarn, and a Cup of Tea: First Finished Sweater

I started knitting a sweater for DD last year. I looked around ravelry for a pattern and found one for a simple raglan. I also watched a video tutorial about it. I ended up using a hat I knit with the same yarn to measure my gauge, then use that written pattern to choose a cast on amount. I fished the yarn out of the stash, I used two balls of a discontinued Patons yarn.

I knit like a fiend for a couple of days, trying the sweater on DD as I went along to make sure it was going to fit.

I bravely moved my sleeve stitches on waste yarn, something completely new to me. I started to worry that the two balls of yarn would not be enough. I told myself that it HAD to be enough. i calculated and pondered over it. I knew I couldn't find that yarn anymore, and I had some more of it, but in different colors. I thought about adding a stripe near the bottom hem of the body and the sleeves. Then, i decided to at least knit until the body was done and see where I stood.

At this point I had just a bit less than one ball remaining. I figured that would surely get me through the sleeves, but that the sweater would not fit DD any longer than that winter season before it would be too short. Then...it sat. And...it sat some more. Eventually I moved it and the needles and the rest of the yarn to a project bag and put it away. We were having a very mild winter, I had lots of other projects I was working on. I was reading more and nursing DS around the clock.

Then, last week I started to think about the sweater again. How close it was to completion. How it would fit DS this year and next if I would just get it done and off the needles. I started to think about all the sweaters I want to make for myself, one already having the swatch knit, and all the sweaters and wool dresses I want to knit for DD. I just knew that I would feel really guilty if I didn't get that one done and out of the way before starting all these new things. So, I made the UFO blog post. Then, challenged myself to finish the sleeves before FO Friday.