Mudnay

Yesterday I delivered the hat to Don S at choir and he was tickled to death. He said that when I emailed him the teaser picture he couldn't wait to get it. It looks quite good on him, though you'd have to take my word on it as dingerdong me forgot to bring the camera to rehearsal. But it was so warming to see such pleasure on the face of a recipient.

Dale KAL

A fellow knitter on the GLBT knit list mentioned in a post a week ago that she was going to be working on a Dale of Norway sweater as part of a knit-a-long. The idea of being part of a knit-a-long for Dale sweaters appealed to me and as I had yarn stashed away for such a project I was able to jump in with both feet. I didn't realize when I signed up that the word had been out since late November of this and that it would start on January 20th, so I felt like a latecomer to a tour with questions that I'm sure the guide had already answered.

If you're not familiar with Dale of Norway, they're best known as the source of the sweaters for the US and Norwegian Winter Olympic teams. Some knitters are diehard Dale fans and collect the patterns. There are sources for the authentic patches and accessories on the Web to add to your Dale sweater to make it a truly Dale sweater. Of course if you add up the yarn, the buttons, the braid, the patches, and the pattern, you have one expensive sweater. But with judicious shopping you can find the materials and not have to hock your first born child. I was fortunate to score the yarn in the discontinued/overstock room at Woodland Woolworks a couple of years ago. The pattern was up in the air at the time, but I opted for Sirdal as my choice. It has a nice balance of patterns all over it and only requires two colors.

Friday I didn't have my long needles for casting on the body of the sweater so I started with the right sleeve. It starts with a split cuff. With color work. Whoever devised this must have been a troll from the depths of a northern fjord. And is named Hrgundebjarndisigmir. And hasn't had trollish delights for donkey's years. Knit the hem section. Knit the turn row. Now knit from this chart using two yarns back and forth, maintaining gauge and keeping the stitches for both colors even. Oh yeah, and don't forget to put in the buttonholes. They're in the pattern somewhere.

Oh yeah, there they go. Right in the middle of the pattern. Hm. Okay, knit on knit on knit on.

Okay time to knit in the round but not here. You have to do it over here. So you have a flappy thingy for your buttons. Isn't that clever!

Okay so far so good now what do I knit?

Now are you going to use braiding or not?

Um, what do I have to do if I do?

You have to do this.

Oh. But the picture doesn't look like that. It has this chart starting from the braid, not that one. So what do I do if I don't want braid?

You have to do this.

Um, but that's the same only ten rows sooner. And it still doesn't look like the picture.

Bugger it, I'll do it my way

.

The result so far is above. If I want braiding, I have room for it. If not, it still looks fine.