beading complete!

finished stitching on the last bead last night 

followed by a coating of fray check on the back after that 

nice 

today's work will include cutting the bead work away from the background and starting to attach it to the backing --- which will be a soft tan upholstery velour --- it's the only thing I had that is big enough 

it will probably take at least a couple of days worth of beading time to get this finished since there is not only the outside edge all around to do, but also all those open areas inside 

this should be done by the weekend!  


let the fiddling begin 

a few days ago the DH pronounced this sweater pattern a "go" for the new cardigan I'm going to knit him

which means that I am now in the fiddling stage of trying to rewrite it to the point that I can actually make him something that looks like this one, but will meet the other qualifications

number one:  it must fit --- the pattern is not written big enough, so I will need to make it bigger

number two:  the original is knit in a gauge that makes a very tight jacket like sweater --- and I know from experience that something that heavy will never get worn -- even in this climate

so, like I said, the fiddling has begun --- knitting of samples to get the proper feel in the "fabric", then the calculating of whatever gauge that creates, followed by figuring out which size in the instructions, when knit in my new gauge will result in the proper size sweater

the math part is something that needed to be done with a calculator and a brain that was not so fuzzy as it was just before bedtime last night!

oh yeah, this is the yarn -- he decided something that would stand up to a lot of machine washing and drying was the best choice if he was going to really wear it as much as he did the last one (or more)