. . . but didn’t. Well, actually, I did take the first one, then accidentally (subconsciously on purpose?) deleted it. It was of my third—yes, third!–attempt at the right sleeve for my mushroom sweater.

When I post images of the finished sweater (coming soon), you’ll notice that the colours in the raglan sleeves blend into the colours of the body of the sweater. And since the colours of the body aren’t arranged symmetrically, the sleeves would have to be of different colour arrangements, too. I’d finished the left sleeve without a problem, but some silly counting errors necessitated my starting the right sleeve three times (and ripping out intarsia knitting is a time-consuming activity).

Third try had to be lucky, right? And so it seemed. Everything went smoothly, as I worked with the sweater body laid out beside me so I could choose the appropriate colours to blend in with it. After about a week’s worth of evening knitting, I was done! I was excited to see what the finished sweater would look like, so I laid the pieces out on the table, and guess what? I’d made a second left sleeve! All I could think, after thinking a few choice swear words, was, “What was I thinking??”

So sleeve three got ripped out (frogged, in knitting parlance, as in “Rib-it, rib-it”–rip it, rip it, rip it out), and when I sat down once again to work on the right sleeve, I made sure it was indeed the right sleeve.

Second photo I should have taken: After all the sweater pieces were finished, I blocked them by making them slightly damp, then pinning them out to the right size and shape on pieces of mat board. These I put out on the deck to dry, then went about doing something else. I came out a few minutes later to check on them, only to find that Silas, our goofy Golden Retriever, had plopped himself right down on top of the body! That’s when I should have grabbed the camera, but my first instinct was to shoo him off, not only because he’d been out in the woods that day and was his usual unclean self, but also because he was lying on the pins and needles I’d used to block the sweater. I should have realized that a few more minutes of reclining on whatever was underneath him wasn’t going to change the situation, but instead I made him get off my precious time- and labour-intensive work!

The pieces are now sewn together–I’m wearing the sweater as we speak, in fact–so as soon as I can get someone to take pictures, I’ll post them. The first sweater for myself that I’ve actually completed!