Cleaning off my plate

A little over one year ago, I started working on a sweater for my then-unborn baby. I had lots of bits of Debbie Bliss's baby cashmerino yarn left over from the patchwork baby quilt (a.k.a. "the Frankenblanket") I'd made, so I figured I'd use it up on another project in Bliss's Baby Knits for Beginners: the boatneck sweater.

Actually, I'd already made one of these sweaters for the baby, in a lovely russet-colored merino yarn from Mission Falls. Since that one is in the 12m size, I decided to make the next one in the 18m size. And with only small amounts left over of different colors of yarn, I knew that stripes would be the order of the day.

I finished the front and back of the new sweater last March or so (mostly while Jan and I watched our way through all three seasons of the original Star Trek series), and I carefully counted my rows so the striping would be identical on both sides. And then I put this project away and didn't return to it until about a week ago.

I thought I might have enough yarn to do one sleeve entirely in light mauve (as you can tell by the photo, that wasn't the case, and dark mauve had to pinch hit at the end), but I wasn't sure what to do about the second sleeve. I brought this project to a local knitters' group (the first meeting I'd attended, actually!), and they gave me this very helpful advice: "Why not do the other sleeve in stripes? Everything doesn't have to be symmetrical!" Wow, what a brilliant idea. So the second sleeve has the other three colors in it--and I had just enough yarn for it, too! So now this sweater is all ready for Sylvia to wear next winter!