free at last! free at last!

thank you, lord, i am free at last! and, boy, i am one happy camper!

these two sweaters are just about as cute as they can be, but man, have they been an albatross around my neck this past month!! this whole project has given me fits but i have absolutely no one to blame but myself - pure and simple! no one held a gun to my head and made me knit these - i did it with my own free will!!

the sweater pattern itself was quite simple and my favorite type - knit from the top-down with absolutely no seams to sew!! can't beat that!
what made this ordeal so torturous was the fact that i had to knit each sweater twice!! that is four times!

one of those was because of my own stubbornness and stupidity!! i am so mad at myself because after an inordinate amount of knitting i know better! if i could i would kick myself in the butt!

what was the infraction you ask? it is one of the key mantras of knitting - rule numero uno - 'check your gauge!!'. did i do that - oh, no, not i - i know what i am doing!! yeah, right! well, i do know several things, like i always need to drop down one or two needle sizes because i knit loosely - did i do that? "oh, no," as i so cavalierly stated! 'things will be fine, after all, i'm using cotton not wool and since it is for a baby, if it's a little bigger that will be great, the baby won't outgrow it so quickly!!" well, it was so big that it would've fit a 5 year old and that would be just a tad too long for any mother have to wait to use a gift! so....frog i did! ripit! ripit! ripit!

the problem with the other sweater was with the pattern. once i got the entire sweater finished (seamed and all!!!) i decided i didn't like it! it just wasn't what i wanted - not at all! so...frog i did!

that is when i pulled out this pattern, KNIT A GAUGE SWATCH, made some variations and started knitting! i took some little side trips along the way -like those cute little socks from the last post - but finally i reached a point where i had to put blinders on and ban myself from looking, touching or feeling any other yarn or patterns. i could tell that i was over this project as i found myself wandering aimlessly around my garden and the house, looking for other things to do - and that even included cleaning!! that is when i said to myself, "self, enough of this - get these mother's out of here! get them done so you can move on!!" so, after making a deal with myself that will involve some type of reward, i proudly present the baby sweaters for twin a and twin b!!! i hope they keep the bambinos nice and toasty because i'm burnt out!!