Pilgrim at Beaver Dam Ford

Doesn't have quite the same ring to it as Annie Dillard, does it? This is the snowiest winter we've had since I moved to northern Virginia four years ago.

It's been too long since my last post and the things I was working on have since been shipped off to their recipients.

However, let's review and post pictures for posterity. The secret project from my last post was a second Wolf Jacket in wool for Wolf. It appears that it's no longer available on either the American or Canadian Mary Maxim site. The first one was from a kit with acrylic yarn, which was the watershed for my turning to natural fibers. If you're not sure how you feel about a particular fiber or yarn, knit a sweater for a big guy out of it. Not only will your doubts disappear, but your opinion on the topic will not be lukewarm. I used DROPS Eskimo from Nordicmart.

So, kind of funny story about this sweater. The object was to have it ready to hand over to Wolf when he and Stephanie got married in November. There I was on the plane, knitting the collar like mad. We arrived a couple of days early, so I had time to feverishly sew it together in the hotel room. The collar seemed to short to me, even though the contours lined up perfectly with the neckline. So, I consulted Mary Maxim customer support. I consulted Lisbeth, the awesome knitter I met on Ravelry because of this sweater. Customer support reported no errata. Lisbeth hadn't gotten that far on a similar one she was making, but wished me luck. So, I decided just to go with it. There was great consternation over the sewing up, too. I could not get my seams to look like the ones in the picture. I consulted Web sites. I tried variations on the mattress stitch. In the end, the seams looked nice, but still not like the picture.

Then, the day after the wedding, we had lunch with Wolf. The sweater was ready except for having the zipper sewn in. I chatted with Stephanie about making a more feminine version for her with hot pink as the main color and the wolf in various shades of purple. Then we had Wolf try it on. It was about an inch and half too small across the chest. Stephanie is keeping warm in her oversized wolf jacket about now.