This hurts me. It really, really does. But now that I’ve almost completed my very nearly perfect Pekin-esque cardigan, I can see a glaring error in the original Pekin pinafore I knit first. See it?

Yeah…it’s pretty hard to miss. I noticed it as I was binding off that panel, but thought it was something I could fix in the blocking stage. Nope. Looks like I lost my row count and skipped a few lines of pattern. Now I get to disassemble the whole thing, redo that panel, then put it all back together again. Excuse me… (*turns head and clutches throat*) O.k., sorry. I just had to throw up a little bit in my mouth.

On the upside, I must be really good at weaving in ends, because I cannot find those suckers anywhere. *sigh*

…I rock. Pretty hard in fact. Here’s unequivocal proof.

I know. I know. Sure I said I was going to keep Sophia’s project a secret until she received it in the mail and was photographed in it herself. But this is for her yet-to-arrive baby sister, Lola. And since Lola probably won’t be able to wear this until next spring, I was unable to stop myself from showing off right now — essentially the instant I got it blocked on my ancient and rickety ironing board in my poorly lit laundry room. Whatever…it still looks great and I am shamelessly proud of myself. Wanna know what I did? Good…because I’m dying to tell you.

I took the lace pattern from Sophia’s pinafore (o.k. so I’m spilling all the beans, but I’m not even sorry), then I found a baby cardigan that had the right stitch count and went to town cobbling the two together. Unfortunately, I failed to see the problem of pairing a top down raglan bodice with a bottom up lace pattern until it was too late (if you try to knit the lace top down from the bodice it just makes waves). So, in the end, I had to knit to the bottom of the bodice, put those stitches on a holder, then go knit the lace portion from the bottom up. Then I kitchener stitched the whole thing together right in the middle. Can you tell? Please say no, because I’ve almost dislocated my shoulder patting myself on the back over this one. Of course, if I attempt this again, you can be darn sure I’ll find some other bodice that can be knit from the bottom up.

All I have left is to crochet the finishing bits around the neck and sleeves, then Voila! an original masterpiece is finished. I’m going to wait and pop both in the mail at the same time. I hope you’re getting excited, Tamara, because I can hardly wait!

…that turned out to be way better in theory than in practice?

Me too! There’s a very good reason there are poems and stories lauding the feel of sand, water, and mud between your toes, but absolutely none about woolen sock yarn. It was worth it, though. Because now I have roughly 450 meters of gorgeousness that I plan to make up into this lovely bit of lace and wear proudly on every occasion that calls for something special.