Unraveled, Week 6/2022

It's already Wednesday again! Time to join Kat and the Unravelers with a making and reading update -- and as far as the making goes, it's been a big week.

On Sunday afternoon, I had another Zoom board meeting. Thankfully this one lasted only 2 hours and 20 minutes -- still longer than I'd like, but much more reasonable than the 4-hour meeting of the week before. I made good use of my time in this meeting: While the majority of my fellow board members felt compelled to express their opinions over and over again, I worked on my sweater. And by Sunday evening, I'd finished it! I blocked it yesterday, and today it was dry and ready to be tried on.

Pattern: May(be) Queen by La Maison Rililie, size XS
Yarn: Fibernymph Dye Works Bounce (80% superwash merino/20% nylon), in Runaway, approximately 2.5 skeins
Needles: US 4 (3.5 mm) and US 2.5 (3.0 mm)
Started/Completed: December 19, 2021/February 6, 2022
Mods: rewrote sleeves

This may very well have been the most complicated pattern I've ever knit; the yoke shaping and the body had different instructions for almost every round and included occasional short rows, so I had to pay close attention to what I was doing. My only real modification was to change the sleeves so that they were in plain stockinette and tapered toward the wrist. While I liked the stitch pattern in the original, the belled sleeves are not good for my lifestyle or my tendency to knock things over.

I did choose to make a smaller size than what the recommended ease called for because I wanted a more fitted look, but it ended up a bit smaller than I was expecting. It does fit, though I can't wear it with anything underneath other than undergarments or maybe a tank. I know this doesn't seem like an issue, but I usually wear my sweaters with a long-sleeved tee underneath, both because I run cold and need the extra layer and because I don't like to have to wash my sweaters every time I wear them. The sizing isn't because I didn't swatch or get gauge, because I did. I just apparently picked the wrong size to knit.

Or maybe I was knitting the sweater for someone else and just didn't realize it:

I have to say that I think I like it better on her, a little longer and with a bit of positive ease, and I'm happy to pass it along to her if she'll wear it. She's been wanting me to knit her another sweater, so perhaps if I give her this one, I can get a bit of a grace period on another project. I still have my handspun Shifty to finish up, after all.

Reading has been less productive this week in that I haven't finished anything since last Wednesday, but I'm getting close to finishing a couple of books. First, today (as long as work cooperates) I should finish After You'd Gone, Maggie O'Farrell's first published novel. I'd very much like to become a Maggie O'Farrell completist this year, after this one, I'll have four more books to read to have read all her novels. I am also well into Great or Nothing, a Little Women retelling that I found on NetGalley. It's set during WWII and feels a bit like a guilty pleasure to read, so I'm looking forward to getting back to it.

What are you making and reading this week?