I think my luck ran out . .

I've been sick as a dog these past few days. That dry hack, which I thought was an allergic reaction to the unfolding of the latest box of scrunched paper bits, turned out to be the beginning of a real kick-in-the-ass virus attack. I've coughed my lungs out, sneezed, wheezed, blown & croaked my way from bed to kitchen for juice & tea & back to bed. I think I slept most of the past three days! I got up this evening, felt like getting dressed & ordered Chow Mein from my favorite Chinese cafe. Needless to say, I haven't been knitting a whole bunch! But, I did finish a nice washcloth for the Christmas basket.

I have watched a couple hours of TV, so I've knit a little on the latest hoodie. This one's a kid's size 12. As I mentioned before, people tend to make things for little kids & big kids get left out, so I decided to make larger sizes since I have the yarn. The last hoodie in a size 4 took 3, 100 gm balls of yarn. I have 8 to 12 balls in several colors so I decided to knit size 12s for a change. On Saturday, I was finishing the pouch before fusing it to the main body of the hoodie. Last night, I actually got as far as the underarm in the main body & started the first sleeve while watching the Antiques Roadshow & History Detectives. Then I went back to bed.

The Wonderful Wallaby pattern I'm using is worked from the bottom up to the armholes in one piece with the pouch stitches picked up & knit into the body - NO SEWING!! The sleeves are knit to the underarm & joined to the body on one circular needle & knit in one piece to the neck. At that point you can cast off for a plain sweater or keep on knitting the hood. The hood is sewed down the centre & a few stitches under the arm are grafted on to the body. I love the almost NO SEWING part of this sweater. No seams to come undone. No buttons to lose. No zipper to break. Great sweater for kids. When this one is finished, I'll knit another in the greyish/tanish/cherry yarn that I used for the size 4. I didn't realize I had another 12 balls of it in the bin!