FO Report: Soccer Mom Sweater
Designer: The Yarn Girls
Pattern Source: The Yarn Girls' Guide to Beyond the Basics
Yarn: Triple strands of Lion Al Pa Ka
Needle Size:  US 15
Gauge: 8 sts = 4"
Date Completed: Jan 2006
Recipient:  Moi (encore)

(This isn't quite the freaky pose from yesterday's sweater, so I'm feeling better now.)

And the finishing up of projects continues ... I've had this yarn hanging around in somebody's closet for almost two years (I'll admit, it was in my son's closet ... it is a manly yarn, after all).  I originally scored it from Smiley's at a pretty good discount, thinking I'd use this to make a sweater for my Big Sweetie.  In the end, I fell out of love with the gray/black marled yarn, and felt he may not wear it much.  Plus, I do have a entire other project (a much nicer one, that is also gray) on hold for him that I might just crank out for the UFOlympics in February. 

Enter the Yarn Girls' new book ... which really deserves a blog entry unto itself (maybe I should start doing book reports?), but let me just say that I want to make at least every other project in the book.  For me, a big part of the appeal is that these projects are just so quick and easy. The soccer mom sweater is thus named because it's the knit for moms to make while hanging out at soccer (et al) games.  I seriously considered picking up some Lion Wool-Ease Thick and Quick (only five balls!  on sale at Hobby Lobby!), but then there was that whole "2006 is the Year of the Stash thing" (idiot that I am).  So, I went stash-diving, and came up with this.

I think that the worst part of this sweater was that it went so fast. (If that's possible, that is.) There was something really weird about flying through 15 balls of yarn in ... about four days.  It's almost like I was doing something illegal ... it just felt naughty.  (How's that for a boring life?!) 

Wanda asked me when I was planning on wearing a triple-strand alpaca/wool sweater ... as it is, I'm wearing it now as I type, and I plan on wearing it quite a bit, as I'm one of those people who goes to bed wearing flannel underwear, under a polar fleece vest, under the regular coverlet and the heavy down comforter.  (I'm not joking there, but in my defense, the Big Sweetie steals the down comforter quite often.)  I love to be warm. 

So, there you have it!  And if you have about 1500 yards of a worsted weight yarn hanging around in your stash, you can make one of these, too!