Sweater photos!

Here is the Monkey's new sweater on the monkey. It started life as a basic raglan sweater from Ann Budd's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns, except that Josh's actual measurements and my "gauge" (and I use that term loosely) didn't really correspond to any specific set of numbers in her tables. Then I realized that I could use EZ's Knitting Without Tears and do the same basic thing, but make each piece the right length. So, this is a basic bottom-up in the round raglan from Knitting Without Tears. The neck is a little more wonky than I was aiming for, but the sweater fits him pretty well, and he can't wait to wear it.

I had an important epiphany while making this sweater. The Monkey is my step-son, who has lived with us since he and his dad moved in with me at age 4 [we got married when he was 7], and has lived with his dad since he was 2 1/2. I read the "why" post for the Soaring Eagles Project and realized that I was doing the mom work for this kid. I had never given myself a lot of credit (or responsibility) for that and just felt like I was doing what needed to be done, which I am, but it really hit me that his mom doesn't do any of the mom stuff for him - not knitting (which is not necessary to qualify as a mom), not checking his math homework or taking him to the orthodontist or going to parent teacher conferences or giving him Tylenol when he has a headache or taking him to Boy Scouts or cooking him dinner. He hasn't seen his mom since he was 10 (he'll be 13 around Christmastime) and only talks to her on the phone sporadically.

Here are the Monkey and LaLa wearing their sweaters. I don't think I ever got a "good" picture of her sweater before - only a goofy camera phone picture. See how they're both wearing wool sweaters and bare feet? High was in the low 70's today, so they only wore the sweaters for the picture. La's sweater is from EZ'z knitting without tears, the basic yoke sweater, the yoke "design" is simply reverse stockinette rounds that were in-between the decrease rounds, idea from Ann Budd's sweater pattern book, I believe.

Both sweaters were Aruacania Nature Wool Chunky, size 10 needles (about 3 1/2 sts per inch).