Hortencia for mom

It's been a little while since I have shared a knitting project with you, but what can I say, I'm not the quickest at knitting and sweaters take a long time for me. Actually, since I made this sweater for my mom it was a quicker knit that usual since she is so tiny.

The pattern is Hortencia by Andi Satterlund. My mom looked at my Ravelry library and asked me to make her this cardigan as her Christmas gift. She wanted the yarn to be similar in color to the one Andi knit, so she chose Cascade 220 Heathers in Purple Jewel Heather. Personally, I was impressed with the yarn, it seemed soft, but my mom thinks it is a little scratchy :(


I didn't have many issues when knitting the sweater, but the sleeve instructions confused me, funny enough. Now, when I look back at the directions I "get" it and am wondering what was so confusing, but at the time I couldn't wrap my head around it! Speaking of sleeves, I tried a new technique for short rows, German short rows. I watched this video on YouTube and used what I learned on the sleeves and collar of Hortencia. Thank you to everyone who recommended I try this technique, I am a convert! I used to struggle remembering which stitch was the wrapped stitch, but with German short rows the stitch that needs to be picked up is pretty obvious.


In a past blog post I showed a photo of a problem I was having with little gaps along one side of each sleeve cap. I assumed that it was something to do with how I was doing short rows, but even with German short rows there are still little gaps :( I'm wondering if the issue is how I am picking up the stitches, maybe I'm not picking them up correctly. Has anyone had this issue?

On February 15th (my grandmas 96th birthday!) I saw my mom and gave her the sweater. She was really happy with it and so excited. I love making things for my mom because she is always enthusiastic and grateful about what I give her, she knows that a lot of time goes into making it, and she wears or uses whatever I sew/knit her. A month or so ago I was about to swear off making gifts for anyone else. I know I've complained about it on here before, but I really really can't handle ungrateful gift recipients when I have spent time and money making them something unique. I'm not expecting a parade or a float as a response from them, just an acknowledgement of the gift and a thank you.

Recently, I made a gift for someone and the response was rude and it made me so angry that I decided to stop making things for others. Then literally the next day I got the sweetest thank you card from a friend and it made me change my mind. I am at work 40+ hours a week and when I knit or sew something for others I am cutting into my free time. It's time that I could be spending with family or friends, making something for myself, walking my dog, etc. and I'm guessing that people don't think, or maybe don't care, about that. From here on out I am just going to have to be extremely picky about who I spend my time on. It sounds mean, but my feelings have been hurt too many times.

Sorry to end this post on such a downer, but I had to get that off my chest!