Things my sister has made me knit.

I have a really great sister. She is my best friend and my favorite person to go on vacation with. She's a lot of fun and an excellent mother, sister, daughter, friend.

She's also ditching me today and moving to The Netherlands.

I am thrilled for her as she has always wanted to go to Europe and despaired of ever going. Her husband is military and she convinced him to get a transfer. Her kids aren't too thrilled (well, except for my mid-size nephew who is in alt over getting his own room) and have kinda been giving her a hard time. I am praying that DS and I can go over and visit next spring.

She has also made me knit some things. Now, keep in mind that she learned to knit before I did so she has more experience. She's a super tight knitter which always leads me to tease her about bulletproof knitting. She has made me knit socks (which I gave back to her), finish a hat she was knitting for our SIL and other dire things.

She made me knit a poncho.

I know, I know but she's my sister and I love her. And she used strong ammo: the poncho was for my niece! I never wanted to knit a poncho. I don't have anything against them. In fact, I have fond memories of an adored poncho from when I was a little girl in the 70s. It was predominately black with bands of primary colors (kind of fairisle in style) and had a short, bright yellow trim. I loved it. But I wasn't really interested in the poncho knitting craze.

But my sister changed that. One summer the extended family spent a week on Dauphin Island, AL. Sister, niece and I took a trip to Heidi's Yarn Haus. A very friendly yarn store. Sister's eye was caught by a purple child's poncho and she pointed it out to her daughter who was immediately in love. The owner was friendly and helpful-she told Sister that she didn't need a pattern to make a poncho. She just needed to know the poncho code (basically a 1:2 ratio of width to length). So Sister purchased some blue Skacel Antonio (hate blue) fancy pantsy yarn for the poncho. And proceeded to knit said poncho on some 9mm needles. (you have to say 9mm in the Terminator's voice. v. funny)

The summer ended. Fall passed. Winter came. Sister came out to help with Dad's illness after Christmas and brought The Blue Menace with her. The problem? Basically she forgot the poncho code and the ratio was off. When niece put the poncho on it fell off her shoulders and to the floor. So she tossed The Blue Menace at her unsuspecting sister (me) and said "Here, fix this." ????

So DH and I ripped the thing out (had to cut a little) and reknit the thing. Went to block to the two pieces and realized, to my horror, that I had knit the second piece ten stitches wider than the first. RIP. I cast on again and called Sister to tell her that Niece had better wear the darn thing to shreds. Blocked the second piece overnight and stitched it together the next evening. I mailed off The Blue Menace and its attendant yarn remnants so that I would never see it again. I hope never to knit with Antonia again. It's a loosely spun three ply yarn (of three different materials) so I had to actually watch my knitting to make sure I didn't miss a ply. It was a mess to rip out and I had to knit one panel twice. I also hate blue. And guess what?

My niece never wore it.