It is cold and rainy here. Not pouring rain, just a steady cold drizzle. The temperature has gone from the mid-80s on Thursday to the mid 50s when the boys and I went out to dinner and will probably dip into the 40s tonight. It looks like we're a bit cooler than Dave is in Anyang. I haven't heard from Dave in a couple of days, so I hope everything is going alright for him. He's been working very long hours -- he said he worked over 20 hours straight getting the mill up and running early last week.
I spoke to the boys about the high cost of electricity and natural gas and told them we need to conserve. I explained that to save money I would be turning the heat down a bit so there would be no walking about in underwear in the dead of winter. (As has been the case in the past.) Put on a sweater and some socks, I said. I also asked them to turn the lights out when they leave a room, explaining that electricity is expensive. In true family fashion they have gotten the bit between their teeth and are running with it; we're all sitting around in the dark huddled under blankets. Younger Son has appointed himself Keeper of the Lights and has been going through the house turning them off.
The picture is of me (center) with my god-daughters in their twin sweaters, made from oddballs. Yes, they are identical (the twins, that is; not the sweaters.) The sweaters were designed by me and utilize my favorite twin dressing technique of different colors in the same pattern.* The design was inspired by 1) A desire to use up some odd balls of yarn and 2) The variegated yarn used at the neck of both sweaters. I liked the yarn and so used it to select the other colors in the stripes. (If you look closely, all the colors appear in the variegated yarn. This is a favorite method I have of picking related colors for a project.) I only had a small amount (~half a ball) of the variegated, so it naturally moved to the top where the stripe would take less yarn (and provide more impact). I had about a ball of each of the other colors in the stripes, but two balls each of the pink and the yellow, so that was how they were chosen as the main body colors. The pattern was super easy -- using the basic EPS system I knit the body and sleeves in the round up to the point they were all joined, then knit the stripes, decreasing for the raglan shaping. I calculated the number of rows until I decreased away all the stitches I needed to get the collar and just divided by 4 (the number of colors I had) to get the number of rows for each stripe. I did the collar in the same yarn as the last stripe so had some lee-way there to get a good multiple. I also used Meg Swansen's "jogless join" for the stripes and as a bonus here -- if you place the beginning of the round at the right shoulder, it moves into the raglan decrease and just stays there, making it virtually impossible to see any jog at all.*Dressers of twins take note: I know whereof I speak, being a twin myself. I have to say that in regards to twin-raising, my mother got it right. Although she bought identical or matching clothing for my twin sister and I when we were younger, we were never made to dress identically every day. I think because of this we never (at least to my recollection) protested having to dress the same on those special occasions that merited it like school pictures and my sister's wedding. I think she stopped buying us exactly the same clothes when we were thirteen or so and started shopping for ourselves. We have always had our own identities and were never just "The Twins".
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