Christmas Sweater WIP

About a month ago I mentioned that I was swatching for a sweater that I was hoping to make my husband for Christmas this year. I can't believe it's been a whole month since then, but I thought I'd check in and show you how it's going.

I've got the back just about done, which I'm really excited about as it's nice to see it taking shape. I'm a little nervous, however, because it's taken me just about a month to knit this since I can only knit when my husband isn't home, and I only have a month left to knit the front and both sleeves... But I'm really hoping to take things up a notch and just try knitting a little faster and to make sure I'm really utilizing all of the time that I have. (aka don't stop knitting for any reason). Hopefully in one month today this sweater will be wrapped and under the tree.

The pattern that I ended up using is called Squall and it's by Michelle Wang for Brooklyn Tweed. The pattern is really clearly written out and the cable pattern was really easy to memorize which makes it a joy to knit. I also love that she gives you instructions on how to work the cable without a cable needle because that really helps to speed things along (which I so desperately need at this point!!!)

Anyway, I just wanted to show you how the sweater was looking so far. I hope if any of you are partaking in some festive knitting that it's going well for you! 

Different ways to De-Pill a Sweater

Now that it's Fall I've started making soups, and lighting candles, and pulling out my sweaters. I basically lived in one cardigan that I made last year and I didn't realize how rough it looked when I put it away. I used a yarn that was a little bit delicate so it pills fairly easily and I guess I must have got used to it or something cause I really didn't realize that it was totally covered in little fuzz balls when I put it away.

Now that I'm actually seeing how bad it really is I wanted to de-pill the sweater before I started wearing it. I brought out a little machine that says "Dritz" on it that my Mom gave me and, even though I only used it once last year, it was totally dead when I tried to turn it on. I was a little hesitant to shell out and buy two new C batteries to bring it back to life and ended up finding a little pumice stone that was advertised to remove pills from sweaters which I thought would be nice because then it wouldn't take batteries and it couldn't die at inopportune times.

I must say I was a little disappointed because the pumice stone really grabbed and pulled the whole sweater, not just the little pills. I ended up holding the sweater with one hand while gently swiping the stone just above the sweater to catch the pills, which seemed to work okay, but I wasn't as impressed as I guess I was hoping to be.

I gave in and paid the $5 for the batteries (not as bad as I thought it would be) and tried using the little de-fuzzing machine. Just wow, I think when my Mom gave me the little machine it must have had mostly dead batteries because it was for sure working better than it did before. I was just gliding it over the sweater, kind of like a tiny iron, and it would quickly whisk away the little fuzz balls collecting them in a tiny lint trap like a dryer (which the pumice stone also had no way of doing). So, while I wanted to like the natural one-time-expense option, I guess I'm going to be using the little "Dritz" machine from now on, and I'll pretty happily buy batteries for it.

Anyway, that was just my experience with a couple different ways to de-pill sweaters that I just wanted to share. Hopefully it was somewhat interesting or a tiny bit helpful for someone who might be considering picking up something to de-fuzz their own sweaters for Fall.