Work has begun in earnest

on the little nude man. His body is completely knit, though I made his arms and legs half the length indicated in the pattern (and I plan to ignore instructions for hands and feet) and I stopped knitting somewhere around his shoulders. This is because I am making his arms from the elbow down, his legs from the knee down, and his neck and head out of clay. Wire will run through his clay parts and into his stuffed, knitted body, as a skeleton of sorts. And because of the way in which I am making him, he will probably spend the better part of his existence clothed. I will explain all this at some point, but I just don't feel right detailing the neuroses of a being that, as yet, has no head.

Meanwhile, I have begun re-knitting the sweater I mentioned from July. The story behind this sweater is that I unraveled a Gap duster that I never wear and knit as far as the collar, where I ran out of yarn. Because I am unlikely to find another duster to unravel and because I had knit it too big to begin with, the plan is to re-knit it in a smaller size, not only so that it fits me properly, but so that I have enough yarn to finish it. So far, I have the hem and an inch or so of the body. I had admired the pattern from when first I saw it, and I am knitting it (both times) with few modifications - mainly, I'm knitting the body and sleeves in the round rather than seam it, though the collar and sleeve caps will be knit flat, and the sleeves will be seamed to the body. I have tried knitting set-in sleeves in the round, but I was never entirely comfortable with how it was coming together. The main reason I rescued the yarn is because I love the color, which, I'm afraid, I didn't capture incredibly well in either picture. In person, there's less white. It's more like a light maroon, or a dusky, dark pink.

Switching between DK-weight yarn and US0 needles and worsted-weight yarn and US7 needles is certainly odd (imagine working with toothpicks, and then switching them for pencils). Size seven needles feel giant, unwieldy, clumsy, and then going back to size zero makes them feel tiny, fragile, like I could break them with every stitch I knit. I suggest you use the squares on my blanket, seen in the pictures, for scale. And the Dead Elmo vest? The body is finished, seamed, and all the ends are woven in. All that remains is the collar, and stitches have been left live, a circular needle already threaded through them, ready to be knit. However, it will take a little consultation with its intended wearer before I can finish it. I'm not thrilled with the project, mostly out of boredom, so I'm perfectly happy to let it sit in a drawer for a couple weeks.

Quote of the Day: Another comic instead: Out in the world.