First shown here, it was soon pointed out that the sleeves on this sweater were too short. It only took me 8 months to get around to lengthening them, and only after he put the sweater on top of my knitting basket as a reminder. I paid him back for the nagging by making him pose in the sweater again.

The facts, in case you missed it the first time around:
* yarn: 3 skeins of Cascade Ecological Wool in color #8063
* needles: 40″ US 6 and 7 Addi Turbos for magic loop
* pattern: my own
* size: 46″ chest measurement
* gauge: 4 sts. and 5.5 rows = 1″ in stockinette
* started Dec. 24, 2005
* finished Jan. 24, 2006 and then REALLY finished Sept. 29, 2006
* pattern: my own, with many thanks for Alice Starmore and Gladys Thompson’s books
* cables: The chain cable is from Barbara Walker’s A Fourth Treasury of Knitting Patterns. The skull cable is my own, available here.

New obsession:

Fugl, from Lopi pattern book #25. I’m going to use the brown leftover from the above sweater, plus charcoal Cascade Eco wool for the body with silver for the accents. Maybe there’ll be a little handspun accent thrown in, also. I’ve been swatching with the yarn held double, as mentioned by Bagatell, in the hopes that it will work well as a winter jacket.

Rhinebeck:
Unless an anvil falls on my head, I’m going. Woooooollllll.

My knitting lately is enough to put anyone to sleep (instead of being stranded on sleeve island, it’s brown-sweater-body-in-the-round island), so I figured you might like to see something else I’ve been doing.

Homemade chevre. I used a mesophilic culture made from buttermilk and this recipe for this cheese. I got a lb. and a half of cheese from a half gallon of milk. The one on the left is mixed with chives, the one on the right is mixed with a basil walnut sundried tomato pesto that used up the last of my basil plants.

I don’t know about you, but the thought of leaving dairy products out on the counter for almost three days is enough to curl my toes. All is well, though, or at least nobody’s dead yet.

This is my second attempt- the first one failed miserably- and it’s still not as firm as I’d like, but it’s delicious when treated like cream cheese. This is a great beginner’s recipe because there’s only one thing you need that isn’t available just anywhere- rennet. Once you get that, it’s smooth sailing.

Paneer is the easiest cheese to make and can be done solely from ingredients you probably already have. You can use it in Indian cooking and also cube it and marinate it olive oil, garlic, and herbs, and use it in sandwiches and salads. It’s delicious!

Coming soon: A very happy man sporting a gansey with sleeves that are actually long enough. Stop the presses! The poor guy’s been waiting an awfully long time for me to fix those sleeves and they’re finally finished.

Can you hear me crying?

I SWORE all the brown yarn was exactly the same color. I swore it! I laid the skeins out and they were all the same. I didn’t need to knit from two balls. I was the master of this yarn. If you think the bottom sleeve is bad, you should see the body. It’s got three stripes.

In happier news, the awesome Jenna is coming over tomorrow for a little spinning and then we’re heading to the Knit and Crochet-Out downtown. Have you seen the weather forecast? Yuck! Once again, I won’t be able to wear anything knitted to identify me, so just know that I still look like this, only damp. Who’s going? Say hi to me!