What a Difference a Sleeve Makes

"Only today," he said, "today, in October sun, it’s all gold—sky and tree and water. Everything just before it changes looks to be made of gold." --Eudora Welty, The Wide Net and Other Stories
Ah October... I love this time of year. I love the colours, the cooler weather, and how the sun becomes a source of delicious warmth instead of the harsh beam of death that it was in the summer. October turns every forest path into a hall of wonder:


It also means a return to regular baking. I have recently become interested (read: obsessed) by Wool Bread, which is a pillowy, light dough cut and rolled to resemble rolls of wool yarn with some kind of filling inside. Wool and bread? Of course I was gonna give that a go:


It was a bit of a faff to get it started, as I always have trouble proofing yeast with milk and this dough uses both milk and cream. I also thought it would be a pain to cut all those strips to make it look "woolly," but once I got started it was actually pretty easy. I don't think mine looks all that much like yarn, but it sure tasted great. I filled it with cinnamon and brown sugar and it was like a lovely, soft, pillowy cinnamon roll. I'm for sure trying that one again sometime:


In the meantime, I have made great progress on my current sweater experiment. I finished the sleeves and have gone back to the bottom edge to continue knitting downwards with the silver grey yarn. I'm hoping to get a nice, long cardi out of this:


The only thing is that I've been bouncing back and forth about which side should be the "right" side showing out. As of last week, I was quite convinced that the reverse stockinette side should be the right side, but when I finished the first sleeve and looked at the reverse side, I wasn't all that enamoured with it:


And then I flipped it back to the stockinette side and was much happier with the look of it. It's amazing the difference a finished sleeve makes. Witchcraft, I tell you. Spells and abracadabrara:


You might be wondering why I'm so tied up in knots about this decision, but the anxiety over this really comes from the fact that I have a lot of ends to weave in due to all the stripes. I hate waiting to weave in ends because it's such a tedious chore. I prefer to get it done as I go, but until I know which side is going to be the right side I have to wait because I have to figure out where I am going to hide all those tails.

There is the option to make it into a fully reversible cardigan, but there are a lot of things to consider when doing that: how am I going to hide the tails so that they can't be seen on both sides? What about the ugly ridge that will appear when I pick up and knit the neck and fronts? How will I hide that? I also want to knit a hood... how will I keep it from having a pointy gnome tip?

I suppose I'll have to wait and see how I feel about it when I finish the bottom part. I suspect this is going to be more work than I intended, but that's always why I call them sweater experiments: I have no idea how it's all going to turn out.

It's Canadian Thanksgiving today. We had our turkey et. al last night. It was tasty and made me sleepy and I am quite happy to have a simpler dinner tonight. I'm grateful to have your eyes on my blog today. I never quite know where these words go once I put them into cyberspace, but if you're here with me today, thanks for taking the time out of your day to spend time with me. It means a great deal more than you know.

Have a good week!

Comments

That bread!!! Where can I find a good recipe. I need to make some of that this weekend :-).
AdrieneJ said…
I used the recipe in this YouTube video: https://youtu.be/ZGw0GuSx3_c . I also mixed 60 grams of brown sugar and a tablespoon of cinnamon and divided it between each section and rolled it up.
YarnKettle said…
I always love your sweater experiments. You do everything so well and it turns out beautiful. That bread looks very tempting. Keep on writing the words I love reading about your adventures. Plus I am going to experience rain only vicariously through your blog soon enough. Love seeing your island.
AdrieneJ said…
Aw thanks! I’m getting better at working though my stash with these experiments. This is not to say that the stash is any smaller, though…
casey said…
I'm sure you know I'm about to say this, but... I love both sides of the sweater, both have their own character and are equally lovely. I know that doesn't help make a decision on which side to go with, haha. Also, Happy Thanksgiving, belatedly, and I like the new blog look!
AdrieneJ said…
Hehe, yes... this right side/wrong side decision is the toughest I've ever had! I keep changing my mind, but at least I know I'll like the result regardless.
LoveOwlz said…
ooo definitely liking the knit side of that very much. And that bread!!! YUM