new sweater for a new year

A week ago, I finally finished knitting the second twin sweater...but the timing was off. Last Friday night, I took care of this guy all night while he fought a terrible stomach bug.  When he finished being completely sick all over three sets of bedding (and was resting on a beach towel, with another towel for a blanket), he was so wan and weak that he spent much of last Saturday in bed.  He wanted to pose for photos, but did not feel up to it.  He said he wanted the photos to look good, "since people knit Mommy's patterns" but I promised him--this is a one-off.  It is specially designed for him.

He wanted a sweater that was "dressy" and described it as "big brown, little white, big white, with dots."  He seemed delighted with how it came out.  He wanted to make sure to show that it was completely reversible, too.

The sweater was knitted on size 6(4mm) needles, in the round.  Three tubes, joined at the yoke, sized to fit a skinny but long limbed five year old.  The yarns were all from stash: Jo Sharp DK wool (white) that I bought in Australia, the tweedy brown is a Rowan DK wool that was given to me, and the darker brown is from Cushendale Woollen mills in Ireland (well-aged stash, we went to Ireland in 2004, I think) but is sold in the US as Blackwater Abbey yarn.  I wasn't sure I'd have enough of any of the colors for a whole sweater, so this worked out well.

Although it has been brutally cold out, both boys made it mostly through a whole week of kindergarten. (Yesterday it was -32F without windchill.  The windchills were something like -46C.  Yeah.  I do not even want to convert these back and forth.  Awful.)

 I knew that the stomach bug was a rough one.  I've been waiting for the other twin to get sick.  Today we rested at home again...and this afternoon/evening, we dealt with round 2, which seems to involve Mommy spending a lot of time in the bathroom with little boys. Ugh.

(The kid wanted a lot of close ups with the sweater, so you could "SEE IT"!)

Then, at bedtime, the guy with the new sweater took a flying leap towards bed and just ripped his toe open.  YUCK.  Blood and a very upset, brave kid.  We bandaged him up, propped it up, and hope things will be better tomorrow.  That would be good...I could do with a better day tomorrow.  I'm hoping we do not skip both dance and our first ice skating lesson...

In between bouts of sickness, we played super twins.  Here are the dudes in action.  I could not resist showing the photo off...it was an amazing game.  (Note Pillow case capes, pipe cleaner/sun glasses, and the superhero boot slippers?!)

PS: Remember to get your copy of my new book if you haven't already!?  Please tell people about it, too...I am going to need help promoting this one while I take care of these super heroes...