another FO to show! so... I've knit many sweaters and sewn many quilts for my friends' children, but I have never made either for my poor neglected isa. I'm halfway there now, though! amazingly, I have managed to complete isa's very first sweater. I suppose it could also be her last, considering how poorly this one was accepted when I finally tried to gift it to her. she was really interested and acted excited about the fact that I was making her a sweater while I was actually knitting it. once it was finished and blocked and buttoned, I showed it to her and she was like "yay! I love it!" and I asked her if she wanted to wear it and she said no. I asked her why and she said she didn't like it. great. I did finally manage to convince her to wear it (after like 2 weeks of pleading) and this is what I got out of that ordeal:

what the heck is that face?? I told her to smile nicely, but all I got was her squeezing her eyes shut and baring her teeth while saying "cheeeeeese." fantastic. the good news is that she actually ended up wearing the sweater all day. which is a good thing, considering it looks like she might outgrow it any second now. why must children insist on growing so fast?? if only they stayed babies forever so we'd never have to knit anything bigger than a newborn...

anyway, I got the yarn for this when I was up in grass valley for my brother's wedding last may, with the intention of making a sweater for isa. amazing that it took me less than a year to actually make good on that! unfortunately, I really did not like knitting with it. I have decided that I just do not like knitting with cotton and will avoid using it if I can help it (unless it's a blend with less than 50% cotton). the non-stretchiness of it makes my tension all crazy. and I have a whole skein and a half left of it. I really do love the color, though. and I think it looks great with the red ladybug button.

pattern: mine
yarn: cascade sierra, 3 skeins
needles: addi natura us7 circulars and clover bamboo us5 circulars (for ribbing)
finished: february 10, 2008

notes: this is an attempt at knocking off the debbie bliss sweater on the cover of her book, special knits. I loved the ribbed placket/shawl collar and have been wanting to recreate it for a sweater for isa ever since I first saw it. and look how I finally got around to it just in time for her 3rd birthday! actually, she might outgrow this before her birthday actually rolls around, considering it fits just perfectly right now and she's been growing like crazy. anyway, I totally made this up as I went along and it came out almost exactly how I'd wanted it. my goal was to make it a little big to grow into, but I think between the time I swatched and measured isa, and when I actually finished knitting, she had already increased in size. sigh.

edited to add: holy cow!! I just noticed in ravelry that the debbie bliss pattern is available for free! hahahahaha... it only goes up to size 12-24 mos, but... still. had I known, I probably would not have thought so hard about how to recreate it. I did a lot more shaping than debbie did, though. which probably wasn't necessary. oh, whatever. it's just like me to do something like this... but... mine's cuter, right? hilarious. I'll probably end up using her pattern for future baby gifts. btw, is that baby in the photo wearing make-up??