A peek, as promised.

A while ago, I was sitting outside in my parents' garden, finishing up my Still Light Tunic. I had known for some time, that I would have a good deal of yarn left over, but now I knew just how much. All of my designs to date has been made with leftovers or reclaimed yarn. Such are the woes of a student. Back to the yarn. I had the idea, that a baby sweater would be a good knit and a good item to design, before I tried my hand at an adult sweater. So a baby sweater it was.

I also had a clear vision of how it should look. I wanted a certain pattern at the bottom, the cuffs and the neck. That neck, I tell you. It brought me so much trouble that I finally just dropped it! But first things first. I cast on a small-ish swatch, I already knew my gauge but I had to see if the pattern would work out well. It did, in my opinion.

As a small aside, when I was doing the swatch, I had no idea where the idea for the pattern had come from. Why was it this exact pattern that was at the forefront of my mind? Then I went into my parents' bedroom and it all became clear to me, as their bedspread has this pattern all over. It just proves that inspiration really can strike at any time and that you don't have to have a big revelation, sometimes it just sneaks into your mind.

On to the math. I did not figure out all the math for this sweater from the beginning, which worked out fine in this case. However, I have learned my lesson on another pattern and will from now on always do all the math from the beginning. (Oh my, now I actually have to do it, don't I?)

I quickly finished knitting the sample in size 12mo and wrote that size as I knitted it. Well, relatively quickly, I didn't manage to go completely without frogging.

 Then I sat down to do the math for the other sizes and took a deep breath of relief when I was done.

Off to my volunteer tech editor it went and then the wait began. The thing about doing everything on the cheap is that you have to arm yourself with patience, a quality that isn't very pronounced in my family.

The pattern came back a few days ago and all that is left now is test knitting and a photo shoot.

One of the things that keep surprising me is how quickly the designing itself is over and how much time all the other parts take. In this time the knitting was fast as well, but sometimes it isn't and all the technical stuff is not only challenging and long drawn at times, but thankfully also very rewarding.