Ellie's Tiny Tea Leaves

My green tea leaves cardigan is coming along nicely. The body is finished (felt like it took forever) and am nearing the end of sleeve #1. The end of any knitting project often feels like it can drag on, but I'm surprised at how quickly this one is going.

In the meantime, I wanted to share the pink Tiny Tea Leaves cardigan made for our little pink-loving friend in Seattle. Ellie is M's best friend, the little girl that he grew up with and had nearly daily play dates with from the time they were only a few weeks old. One of the reasons leaving Seattle was so hard was because the mere thought of not seeing Ellie and her family on a regular basis made me cry -- and, really, it still does.

This girl is pinkalicious. Having a boy, I of course love any and all opportunities to make pink anything. And so, last September, on our flight to a friend's wedding, I cast on for a pretty little short sleeve tiny tea leaves. It took only a couple of weeks to knit, but it sat, untouched, for months.

What is it about weaving in ends that is so daunting? Whatever the reason, ends got woven in, buttons attached, and sweater blocked in time for it to be mailed along with some very, very late Christmas presents.

I loved knitting this pattern - so easy and straight-forward, and it totally got me psyched to make an adult version. The stripes were more a matter of necessity than a design choice: wanting to use yarn in my stash, I had three skeins of Cascade 220 Superwash in three different shades of pink. No idea what the original intent was for that yarn, but it doesn't matter: it worked and Ellie loved it.

I wish I'd been there to see her put it on, but with any luck, I'll get to see her wearing it this summer at our annual family vacation. (Yeah, right... at the rate toddlers grow, I'll be lucky if she can still wear it past April!)