Cinnamomum at the end of Lent

С праздником!  It's Palm Sunday for us today, and it feels we are already in the full swing of Holy Week since Annunciation fell on Friday and we've had services every day since Wednesday (including twice on Friday and Saturday!)  We all wore our green today for the feast and it was a lovely service.  I've been sick on and off for most of Lent, including a truly nasty sinus infection that was like having glue in my face for 12 days.  I ended up having to do a course of antibiotics to kick it.  I have another mild cold right now, but I'm hoping I can muscle through the rest of this week and still have enough voice to sing the Pascha service.  Pray for us!

I have a finished object to show today--my Cinnamomum is finished!  I finished it just before the end of March, but it warmed up a bit and I thought I wouldn't get to wear it this season, but it got cold again the past few days, so I happily wore it yesterday for Lazarus Saturday.  

This sweater was a thoroughly enjoyable knit. The provisional cast-on in the middle meant that the fun and engaging part of the yoke was first, but the hem chart provided some interest after working the body down from the yoke. I made the fourth size (43") because I wanted some ease, and I'm very happy with the fit.  I'm still working out the sweet spot on fit in yoked sweaters.

I added the hem chart (with a slight mod) to the sleeves because I liked the symmetry and the stitch count worked out well. I added more stitches to the sleeve underarm cast on (18, I think) and decreased every 8 rows 13 times to 48 stitches, which gave me the right number of stitches for the hem chart on the cuff.  

I did end up knitting one of the sleeves twice, as I forgot to size up a needle and the sleeve came out too tight.  (Pro tip: when knitting small circumferences, tension tends to get tighter, so go up!)  I also had to frog the yoke once as I got a third of the way in and realized my stitches had gotten twisted somehow and I couldn't fix it without starting over.  (Blerg!)

Thankfully it was on an enjoyable part of the sweater.  I also frogged the top part of the yoke once as I forgot to twist the rib stitches and it bugged me enough to tink back and fix it.  Looks like this year is the year of "never say never," since I am finding cabling interesting and engaging now--maybe I'll do a complicated gansey or fisherman's style at some point!  I still enjoy charted lace and stranded knitting, so it is nice to have an array of techniques to move amongst.

I liked this designer's work so much, I immediately cast on another of her patterns, the Laneus pullover, using the yarn from my frogged Cypress sweater.  It too is a thoroughly enjoyable knit.  I like her Javelin pattern too (and bought it!) but I'm finding DK weight sweaters work better for me overall right now and that one is written for worsted.  Although maybe I can fudge the gauge somehow and make it DK weight anyway?  

That said, I want to make a light weight sweater for this time of year (and the corresponding shoulder season in the fall) and I have this beautiful heathered lilac colored yarn that I want to use for it.  It is the same line as my Lightweight Pullover from earlier this winter and I've gotten a ton of wear out of it.  My plan is to cast on the Geo Lace pullover, but I had to remath most of the pattern because the yoke and body stitch counts didn't match--why?!?  I buy patterns so I don't have to math them.  My plan is to do a provisional cast on and knit the yoke first like with this sweater since I like how it allowed me to adjust the yoke depth before doing the body.  The yoke as written seems a little on the shallow side to me; a provisional cast on means I don't have to tink back the whole yoke to fix it in the middle.

And for those of you whose eyes glazed over at all the technical knitting stuff, whew, I'm finished! I'm not sewing much at all right now; mostly just altering stuff I already have to fit better. 

My garden is full of spring flowers. The daffodils and crocuses and are nearly done, but the tulips and grape hyacinth are just flowering now.  The raspberries are leafing out nicely and it looks like the blueberry bush is getting some flowers.  The dwarf mulberry probably won't fruit this year, but I'll be happy if it leafs out nicely.  The strawberries and hydrangea weathered the winter pretty well.  I bought some pansies at the hardware store and put them into some of the big pots.  The building behind us (the brick wall you see in the photos) is undergoing a major renovation, including adding a third story, so I'm not sure how much that will affect our light situation here.  The new story is set back from the roof line a bit, so it may not impact us much.  There is also a new condo unit going up next to it, but it isn't supposed to be any taller than the other houses around us, so hopefully that won't impact our light either.  I'm making no firm planting plans at the moment.  Maybe some lettuces soon.

Onward into Holy Week!