Retrofits

I've been loving Jesse Loesberg ever since Avast, but when I saw Retrofit in the new Knitty, I knew that I had to knit it, and knit it small. It was almost perfectly what I'd been thinking of making for The Boy; a cardigan instead of half-zip pullover, but hey, close enough. I asked him only what colors he wanted, and went shopping. After some math I cast on and pretty quickly finished the sweater. I ran right out and purchased a separating zipper (I learn from my friends' mistakes) and there it sat. I even wove in all the ends before attempting to sew in this zipper. I almost never weave in ends, but I was procrastinating. The zipper thing scared the holy crap out of me. I spent two hours on Saturday pinning, unpinning, basting, sewing, ripping out stitches and pinning again. I finally just went ahead and sewed half of it in, and left it in a pile. This afternoon I attempted it again, pinned the other half, basted, and sewed. This half took approximately 1/2 hour. It's done!! Yay! He can wear it now! It looks good!


Here, have some photos:





Details:
Pattern: Retrofit, Fall 2008 Knitty
Yarn: Cascade 220, less than two skeins each color
Started: Sept. 13, 2008
Finished: (Knitting) Sept. 30, 2008 (Sewing in zipper) Oct. 21, 2008
Mods: Cast on fewer stitches to fit 7 year-old

Going to Philly

Well, actually New Jersey, but the only pictures I took are from the Philadelphia Zoo on Sunday.



What a wonderful zoo. The kids had a blast looking at all the animals and we had such nice weather. I think it's even nicer than the National Zoo in DC, but if you're in the area, the DC Zoo is really spectacular (and free). My favorite were the elephants. The one in front of us was getting a drink:



The kids posed in front of real ones:



(he's holding her head because she kept turning around to look)

and fake ones;



The Boy led the way around the park:



and The Girl had her face painted:



We had a nice time.