AAAARRRRRMSCYE!!!

Ahoy, mateys! It be talk like a pirate day, that most beloved of knitters’ holidays.

I celebrated this fine day, not by plunderin’ and pillagin’ and drinkin’ rum (as fun as that would be), but by taking the day off from work and having nice long conversations with my boyfriend, sister, and parents, who all live very far away from me.

The best part about all this (sorry, loved ones) was that I finally had time to ask a million questions of my sister Nora about her sweater preferences, got her to measure a favorite sweater, and now I have all the information I need to start (this pattern, this yarn):

Cool, no?

Nora chose a deep purple as the accent color (instead of the avocado green provided by the kit), which isn’t as accent-y but I think it looks lovely against the dark brown.

The corrugated ribbing was the hardest to get the hang of (that’s 2 inches, and it took me almost 2 hours to do!), but the colorwork is lovely and I’m quite pleased.

However.

I use sleeves kind of like a gauge swatch. I knit for a few inches, measure gauge, and if it’s correct then I’ve made a head start on the knitting. If it’s not correct, then I’ve only done a few inches of the sleeve and it’s not hard to rip out. I measured gauge right after taking this picture and … it’s not correct. I’m getting 6 stitches to the inch when I should be getting 7. So I ripped it out and started again on size 3 needles.

Alas. I guess I don’t have my sea legs yet, or I’m just a canvas short of a full sail. Time to come about and re-knit, keel-haul the bilge-rat, and give no quarter! Yo-ho-ho and a skein of wool!