kids in restaurants

Stuart and I thought it would be nice to go out for dinner as a family. We rarely do this, and this evening was a reminder of the many reasons why. First, Daniel sulked that we didn't go to the diner of his choosing; instead, we went to a new place with rave reviews that we really wanted to try (Sujeo). Then we had to wait for a table and everyone got squirmy. Then we had to wait for our food and the kids kept jostling the table and making faces and whining that it was taking too long and Daniel dropped his silverware by accident and they both kept lying down in the booth and were just generally not well-behaved at all.

I'm undecided about whether this means we should go out more often to give them practice or even less often because it's so aggravating to spend the whole time telling them to be patient and stop entertaining themselves by trying to drink out of a water glass without actually picking it up.

While we were waiting for our table, we had the freedom to roam around a little bit, so I asked Stuart to take some pictures of my new sweater with his phone. Kids kept sneaking into the shots.

Daniel likes to cuddle if he can be in the picture. Also, check out the giant neck on my sweater. Ick.

This is the sweater my mom and I knit together. It was her suggestion after we both received Vogue Knitting in the mail last spring and both liked the first pattern in it. We even ordered yarn together and started around the same time. Then the frustration started. She kept screwing up the lace portions. I kept screwing up the lace portions. The instructions were, to put it kindly, sparse. Some things we had to figure out completely ourselves.  Some things stumped us, and given that we are both experienced knitters, and we were both having trouble, that should tell you something.

Now we're both done and guess what? Hers is too big. And mine is too big. You can see in the photos from the way I'm holding my arms up that the neck is huge, even after I picked up stitches, which did pull it in a bit; in fact, it almost puckers weirdly from how much the neckline was pulled in from the finishing work. You can see that a little bit in the picture below.

I'm tired today.

 I'm disappointed, to be honest. The yarn is wonderfully light and soft (Cozette by Knit One Crochet Too) and even though the sweater doesn't fit, it is still comfortable because the finished fabric is so nice next to the skin. But even though I made the smallest size and my gauge was perfect (it really was! I'm not lying!), the whole thing hangs too loose and the neck really bugs me because it's so wide. To go out, I wore a brown A-line skirt and tan boots, which should have been cute, but ended up kind of frumpy and dumb.

See Anya's elbow in the corner there?

I'm glad the sweater is done, but I don't know if I'll keep it. I won't frog it to reuse the yarn, because it's so delicate, it would break if I tried to pull out all that work. Plus, this would look really nice on someone a little bigger than I am, or at least someone with more of a chest than I've got. I could keep it and wear it anyway, maybe find a necklace to help cover that huge collar area that's exposed and isn't flattering on me. If I'd made the whole thing 6-8" longer, it would be a nice beach coverup. You know, for all those tropical vacations we take.

Pattern: Scoop-Neck Pullover from VK Spring/Summer 2014
Yarn: Knit One Crochet Too Cozette
Sticks: size 7 circulars
Mods:  none aside from yarn substitution. I should have found a way to make this smaller, at least the neckline