heartbreak and new curtains

This sweater broke my heart, it is so freakin beautiful but it is really too small for me to wear. I can squeeze into it but it will never be comfortable. And yes, I did swatch and block it.

 So what went wrong?

1. I think I should have gone up a size and worked with positive ease in the bust as the pattern suggested rather than going for 0” ease. I tend to knit things large though so perhaps I overcompensated.
   
2. The big difference is the yarn. I adore Miss Babs Northumbria DK, the color Vlads' Red is fabulous and I love the way BFL wears, but it is pretty firm. The yarn suggested for the pattern is silk and camel which is soft and grows a lot.
   
3. I typically knit sweaters in the round so it was hard for me to tell how it was fitting until the pieces were blocked and sewn together.
   

That said, the pattern, Leaving by Anne Hanson, is well written and the yarn is fabulous, I would use them both again. Do I have it in me to knit it again? Maybe, this was fairly tortuous due to the disappointment at the end and how much my wrists were bothering me as I worked on it. If I do, I will go up a needle size and pattern size and knit it in the round. Meanwhile, I hope I can find someone petite enough to wear this sweater who will appreciate it.

Made some new kitchen curtains this week. Bought some 100% linen in a natural color and stenciled it using Lotta Jansdottir ready made stencils.

Here is a detail of the new curtains and below are the old curtains. I loved the fabric of the old ones but they were getting faded. Turns out the Huz hated them all along because he thought they were "too crazy". He's much happier with the new ones which he thinks are happy and modern in an understated way.

Girl was experimenting with the stencils too and did these elephants and is quite proud with how they turned out. Maybe we'll turn it into a placemat?

Here is a shot of the Jansdottir book and the materials I used. The paint and brushes were purchased at Joanne's, I also used some temporary adhesive spray which really helped hold the stencils in place. This was quick, easy and cheap but I would love to try some fabric paint that doesn't look quite so much like it's sitting on top of the fabric. Perhaps I need silkscreen paints?

This little fatty was sitting right outside our kitchen windows. We have a squirrel feeder with a jar that we can see from the table and love to watch the food scuffles amongst the rodent-y locals. Sometimes they crawl into the jar and fall asleep in the sunshine.