Finished: Sleigh Ride Tammy

When I received my swap partner assignment for the August Geek and Nerd Swap, I was a bit intimidated.  My partner learned to knit about the same time I did, and she likes to make the same things I make (hats, socks, the occasional shawl), but she is far more prolific.  I think she turns out three times as many finished objects as I do, and her items show the skill that comes from that sort of practice.  I wanted to make something a little bit special, even if I couldn't pull off giving her something that she wouldn't necessarily make herself.

So I made a tammy.

My swap partner listed Andersen's "The Snow Queen" as a favorite fairy tale, and so I picked the Sleigh Ride Tammy for the part of the story where the Snow Queen carries Kai off to her castle.  I bought the pattern, ordered the yarn and needles I needed, and got ready to cast on.

The yarn arrived around August 20.  Urp, I thought, that doesn't leave much time.  But I've knit a couple of stranded items before and a tammy isn't that big, and I had a weekend vacation with lots of train travel time which is knitting time, and my swap partner was on vacation until the end of the month, so I wasn't too worried.  The tammy was knit with Cascade Heritage Sock on 2.5mm wooden needles; I started and ended on dpns, switching to a circular once I got past the ribbing and increased to more stitches.

I miscalculated how much slower I knit with yarn in each hand, thought, and how my work tends to dump three projects on me right before I need to ship a swap package.  I cast off the tammy the night before I needed to ship and hurried to block it.  I stretched it over the base of my springform pan, and then left it dry overnight so I could ship it in the morning.

But this is Belgium and things don't dry quickly here, and in the morning it needed a bit more help.  So I popped it in the oven.

It dried.  The box shipped on time!

One of the interesting things about these swaps is that they push me out of my comfort zone, and then my first attempts at some lovely techniques fly away to new homes.  My first reversible cables and first stranded mitts have been made and gifted through these swaps, and now my first tammy as well.  I am particularly proud of this hat, though--I think it is one of the prettiest things I have knit.