Tuesday, February 07, 2006

A Charlie Brown Sweater

Amy, a friend of mine for many years, married a man named Charlie Brown. Unfortunately, it's a family name. They're expecting a baby any day now. At first, they were told it was a girl, and Amy was ecstatic, in part because she wouldn't have to follow the family tradition and have a son named Charlie Brown. Of course, she went in for more tests, and they learned it was a boy. That's when I knew I had to knit this.



I used a pattern from here, though in retrospect I could certainly have made it without a pattern. The trademark zig-zag is duplicate stitch.

Yarn: About 1 and 1/3 skeins Blue Sky Cotton in Poppy and about 1/3 to 1/2 in Black
The colors are about as close as I could get to the original, at least in a washable yarn. They aren't quite right, but I can live with it.

I was been busy this weekend with Kiri and the Fuzzy Feet. Somehow, I managed to overlook the directions on Fuzzy Feet and do twice the amount of gusset decreases. I had to put it aside for awhile after making that mistake.

I was also busy spinning this.



It's merino roving from Handpainted Yarn (the Malabrigo folks). It's quite soft and fairly easy to spin, once I started using Paula Simmons' method. Her method is actually easier with short-staple fiber than with long-staple fiber. I have about 10.5 ounces of this roving, and I plan to do a 3-ply yarn, I believe. I also finished plying some nondescript gray Peruvian wool.

I realized today that I have really overcommitted myself and have too much to knit. Here's the list:

- Kiri for mother-in-law (must be finished next month)
- Klaralund for me (strictly subway knitting now; on a bit of a hiatus)
- Zipper sewn on Saranac for husband
- Fuzzy Feet for me (no time-limit)
- Self-designed Aran afghan for wedding gift (July 1)
- 4 baby gifts, one in April, three in August; most complicated one is around the beginning of July--this
- Lady Eleanor Entrelac stole from Scarf Style for me (on hiatus)
- Two socks for husband, which will complete two pairs

Something will have to give. I think I will be okay if I get a lot finished on Kiri this weekend and cast on for the afghan. The afghan has me worried, though.

9 comments:

Donna said...

The sweater is great! My FIL's first name is Charles and his middle name is Brown. MIL collects Peanuts characters, her favorite being Charlie Brown, of course!

Kaitie Tee said...

You're sweater is cute! You have much more patience than I do with duplicate stitching...must have taken a long time.

Knittypants said...

The sweater is so cute. The baby will be darling in it.

Rain said...

With a name like that it would have been criminal not to make it. It looks really cute and I bet baby Charlie will look really sweet in it.

Karen said...

That's awful cute!!

I'm worried for you about the afghan...

Valerie said...

Thanks for the comments!

Karen, it's going to be fine. Or I'll be calling you crying at 2 a.m. the night before the wedding.

MiniLaura said...

you duplicate-stitched the zig-zag? with cotton yarn? You're crazy! (But then doing it as intarsia would be crazy, too. And figuring out a way to make a zig-zag stripe using increases and decreases would probably result in a less than straight bottom edge.)

The sweater is very cute. I'm sure little Charlie Brown will grow up to hate seeing photos of himself in that sweater. :-D

Penny Karma, aka the F-Bomb Mom said...

I know a Charlie Brown too! He's the cutest thing. I love that sweater, I should make one for my little round-headed, cue-ball bald son.

Anonymous said...

Can please give me a direct link to the pattern? Thanks