Best Quote I Heard All Day
Opie, you haven't finished your milk. We can't put it back in the cow, you know.--Aunt Bee

Today it is three weeks since I began the JamaicanMeCrayzee hoodie. And thankyouJesus, I'm on the hood and charging down the home stretch.

So I don't need to worry about putting the wool back on the sheep.

By Friday, I should have pictures of the finished product. And then I have to start doing the sizing for the directions.

Minor Details
As much as possible, I try to think through a project's elements to determine how I am going to handle each. With the hoodie neckline, as I mentioned in an earlier entry, I decided to bind off the back neck stitches and leave the front center stitches on hold.

I wanted some subtle delineation on the back neck that indicated where the hoodie began. I was also figuring that by picking up the back stitches from bound-off stitches, I would achieve a very slight bend in the join between the neck and the hood, allowing the hood to lie a little flatter on the back.

It worked nicely. Here's a picture of the right side of the back:

You can just barely see the slight indentation on the inside of the neck.

Almost indiscernible. But it makes a difference as to how the hood will lie.

I've also made a very minor addition to the hood, where instead of incorporating the ribbed edging into the existing number of stitches, I cast on 5 extra stitches at the beginning and end of the hood for the edging. The ends will be lapped one over the other and stitched into place at the front center, as you would a placket.

Now you may argue, this is just a dropped-shoulder pullover for a kid so why bother with all this detail nonsense?

Because I think through and plan carefully every project I knit or spin, no matter what it is or who it's for. There's much reward in the planning and even greater reward in the finishing.

Gluttony Punishment
I'll be glad to return to the Melanie shawl once the hoodie is finished. I've got five months to get it done. So be prepared for lots of pictures and gnashing of teeth.

But I am a glutton for punishment. Because I've ordered Sharon Miller's Wedding Ring shawl pattern. This is the one that Corinne originally rejected as looking too much like a tablecloth. Dopey kid, what does she know? Actually, I'm rather grateful that she didn't want it because I'd never get it done in time for the wedding.

The Wedding Ring shawl is a limited-edition pattern so I didn't want to miss out like I did with the Princess shawl. Ted Myatt and Katherine Matthews are co-writing a blog, The Princess Diaries, on their knitting experiences with this complex lace shawl. If you're at all interested in the processes behind knitting a major lace piece, this is worth reading.

It's not your father's Knitalong.

Collaborative efforts such as the Princess Diaries do not a knitalong make. Knitalong, to me, equals a large number of people knitting the same thing, whining profusely and asking continually witless questions. With a collaborative effort such as that of Ted and Katherine, you have two talented knitters sitting around talking about the process as each of them works through a very long and difficult piece of knitting.

Blogs such as this one are what's rare and handy these days in the knitting cyber-realm.