1, 1, 2, 3, 5 . . . Finished!

Another side effect of my lapsed blogging is that I fell out of the habit of taking photos of inanimate objects. In other words, I forgot to take pictures of my knitting. Now, this isn't such a big deal for something like the Hermione hat, which I can pull out of my pocket and photograph at a moment's notice.

But, when you knit something for a little girl (A.) who lives in Pennsylvania, and mail it to her for her birthday, and forget to snap a picture of it before sending it in the mail, things get a little more complicated. I had heard through the grapevine that A. received my Fibonacci sweater, that it fit, and that she had christened it "my pretty princess sweater." But I was a little sad to know that I might never be able to record it for posterity. So imagine my delight when the little princess herself showed up for Christmas festivities wearing this:

I'm sure that A. (and her mother) would want me to mention that even princesses sometimes have accidents. With chairs. And even princesses sometimes get black eyes right before all those Christmas pictures. Anyway, rest assured that A. is usually a very pretty, happy little girl. And doesn't she look awesome in the sweater? Here are the details:

Pattern: Adapted from The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns by Ann Budd

Yarn: Mission Falls 1824 Cotton, various colors (if anyone wants the actual color stripe sequence, just contact me and I'll try to reconstruct it--again, poor record keeping). The stripe sequence is based on the Fibonacci sequence (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34 rows of each color)

Started: 8/28/2006

Finished: 11/11/2006

Comments: I really enjoyed this project. Designing the stripe sequence was a challenge for me, particularly since I used nine different colors and not all of them looked good right next to one another. But I was pleased with the overall color effect. The main changes I made to Ann Budd's pattern involved the sleeve length, which I shortened somewhat to make the stripes match up better and to match the shorter arm length of a three-year-old. I also made up my own edge ribbing rather than following any of her suggestions.

My only frustration with the project is that it took a long time to finish. Not because it was tricky, or difficult, or at all time-consuming, but because in the early stages of the project, it's not very portable. Having to change colors every row or two means you have to carry around a lot of yarn, so the sweater was confined to at-home knitting for much of its life. Once I got to the fat pink and purple stripes, though, the sweater was a quick, easy, and eminently portable project.

Ann Budd's pattern is definitely not the style of sweater I would choose for myself, but it is a great base to use for basic children's sweaters that you just want to embellish in some way or adapt for your own uses. Highly recommended!