Hayden

I used to think it was strange for designers to give their creations actual people names, but now I know why. The many hours spent carefully planning, knitting, frogging, reknitting, and sometimes screaming and crying, can be emotional and sentimental, much like the people in our lives. So I'll call my latest FO Hayden, after the yarn, which is also named after a very special person to Maria, who designed the yarn.

I can't believe it was a UFO for nearly a year, but I was stuck on how to design the upper half. If I'd finished it way back then, I would've never given the attention to detail - like lining up the stitch pattern in the raglan decreases, grafting the underarms, and using short row shaping to raise the back of the neck. I tried her on fresh off the needles, before weaving the ends, and she fits beautifully. Before I could snap a photo, she was in the sink, since I have a phobia of wearing unwashed yarn, and I'm glad I did, because there was a mess of red dye in the sink, which would've been all over my skin - ew. Now she's drying on plastic bags under a fan so I can proudly wear her tomorrow.