It's done!

The anniversary sweater. It's really done!

I started it waaaay back in April 2006 and planned to knit it for my sweetness on the occasion of our second (cotton) anniversary on April 17, 2006. And then I started it. And immediately I knew that was not going to happen ;0) I then reasoned that it would be okay as long as I finished it during our cotton anniversary year giving myself and extra 364 days in which to finish it.

I knit on it a lot. Heck I even knit on it when I was in labour! Now that's dedication!

But man, that's a lot of cables and, well, that didn't happen either. Birthday? Father's day? Nope. Nada. But on the occasion of Quebec's national holiday on Sunday, I finally did it!


I knit the smallest size using just over 14 balls of Rowan All Seasons Cotton, modified the sleeves to knit them in the round, cast on fewer sleeve stitches (104 instead of 114) and worked sleeve decreases until there were 60 stitches rather than 56. Other than that I knit it pretty much as directed (for posterity did I mention that I used 4.5mm Addi's). I did have a few beefs with the pattern though. The main one was that if you knit it to the letter, that is, same cable pattern on both front and back pieces, the cables and ribs don't line up when you do the 3-needle bind-off. See:


My other beef? I hate how dropped sleeves fit. This is not that pattern's fault. But I wish I had given it more thought and modified the sleeve shaping. But, I digress. It's done! And more importantly, it's very comfy and daddy loves it. Modelled shots are forthcoming though because it's a gazillion degrees these days and it just seemed mean to make him wear it out for some pics so I'm waiting for a less muggy day... In the meantime, here's another shot before I show Julian's last 2nd birthday cake:


After his birthday barbecool with friends last weekend, we had another birthday celebration for Julian's 2nd birthday on Saturday, this time with our families. I baked him a cookie cake with layers of cream cheese filling. Yum! I got it from one of the Kids' magazines, but the recipe is reprinted online if anyone is interested.


We all sang happy birthday to his great delight and then right on beat at the end of the song when we generally blow out the candles, he went in for a bite instead and his cap extinguished the candles. It was a roar! We're still giggling about it. Silly billy ;0)


And now, he has officially entered the 'terrible twos', but so far it's more like the 'terrific twos'! Awwww. I'm counting on him to change the stereotype for all toddlerkind! LOL!

Happy birthday Jubilee Bubilee. Mommy loves you big like the sky ;0)