Kingfisher Sweater

Serendipity is such a wonderful thing.  When I picked my knitting project for my Amazon cruise, I had no idea how appropriate it would be, I only wanted to knit something with color that wasn’t wool.   I quickly realized, as we went out in zodiacs looking at birds, that my Stacy Charles Venus sweater was turning out to be knitted in the colors of the Amazon Kingfisher.  Actually it is probably a combination of the colors of several of the species of Kingfisher that live in the Amazon (four I think), and so I have christened it my Kingfisher Sweater, shown here on the blocking board:

Actually it is not completely knitted up.  I realized about 3/4 through the first sleeve that I was not going to have enough yarn and that I would be about 1/2 skein short on the second sleeve so I became discouraged and slowed down on the knitting.  Luckily I found a book in English in the Sao Paolo airport to help me survive the trip home. 

Usually I purchase extra yarn for most sweaters because I am somewhat tall at 5’9" and usually end up lengthening sweater patterns.  Usually buying the yarn for the largest size works, but not always, so I confirm this by calculating the square inches of the sweater as designed and again as I wish to knit it and then I calculate the yarn needed, preferably with a little slop. 

Luckily this yarn had just arrived a couple of weeks before I left on the trip so I called Theresa at L’Atelier this afternoon and she is winging the extra yarn to me.   

I can’t wait to wear this sweater this spring.  I know it will remind me of my trip for a long time.  Sometimes I think I remember more of my adventures by looking at and wearing the sweaters knitted during each vacation than I do by looking at the photos.