Anniversary- Inspired Sweater

It is the season for anniversaries in my family. Today is mine and Paul's third anniversary. Around the corner on the 16th is my mom and dad's anniversary and my aunt and uncle just celebrated their 25th anniversary on the 4th with the whole family in California.

Now, I know you are wondering why the heck I'm writing right now when Paul and I should be celebrating. The reason is that I am getting home really early these days since I'm riding my bike to work and don't want to come home in the dark. So I'm working 8 - 4:30ish and skipping lunch. Paul won't be home until 7:00 so I had time to get things in order around here, since I have to partake in the chores now that Paul is a hard-working man. My list included taking out the trash and unloading the dishwasher. Plus, I set up the cards that our families sent so we can open them tonight. Not too difficult, so I had a little time to spare.

The anniversary mood and cold weather inspired me to make the sweater that I plan on making for Paul (he knows about this because I had to explain why it took me 9 hours to get home from Fishersville). This is the very one for which evolved into the all-day alpaca chase on the way home from Virginia last week. Paul if you are reading this, don't read any further or you will see the sweater design, fiber and everything. It's ok if you don't want to be surprised, but I know how you like a surpise...






This is the pattern that I got from Carole's because she suggested that it would be much easier to make a sweater like this as a beginner sweater maker, than to mess with knitting each piece separately and sewing together like I had tried in the "biceps sweater." This one you knit from the neck down in one piece on circular needles. Just what I need!



Here is the lovely alpaca fiber I bought from Shirley at Misty Farms. I sneeze every time I open the bag because it is alpaca fiber in the raw and needs a bath. Tomorrow night when Paul is in Ohio I will commence the washing ritual. This is not the most fun part of fiber preparation and I would personally skip this step and go straight to the clean stuff, but 1) it's cheaper to buy it this way 2) alpaca is pricey 3) it's a relatively clean fiber as it has no grease and so is not too labor intensive. Shirley gave me some simple instructions for washing it in the washing machine, leaving out the agitation step to avoid felting. I'll post the steps tomorrow so you can see.


I better get ready to go out to dinner, Paul should be home soon. I think we concluded on an Italian restaurant which might require a little dressing up as opposed to the other option which was Quaker Steak and Lube (a little more casual as the name suggests- gas station turned steak-n-burger joint).