Allergies Blow

So, my last pregnancy completely changed my immune system.  Things that I am now quite violently allergic to now that I wasn't until the minute my sweet baby was born include such diverse items as avocados, pistachios, and rabbit angora.

The big problem with this (other than no more quacamole) is that while I was pregnant I made myself a most lovely sweater with a rabbit angora yarn, which you can see at right.  Doris freaking Chan even commented on my Ravelry project page.  I was able to wear it maybe six times before I had the baby.  Afterwards, I kind of figured it was just too hot to wear it.  Rabbit angora is after all one of the warmest fibers.  But even in the depths of Colorado winter, while I still loved the sweater, it made me want to tear the skin off of my arms.

I have fortunately been able to trade my lovely sweater for yarn to make a new sweater (thanks, Sarah!).  I wonder, sometimes, which of us came out ahead on that one... but not very often, because I'm busy trying to decide which pattern to make with the pretty, pretty yarn.

The swatches, they LIE!

Just about every garment pattern out there says in no uncertain terms that you really, REALLY ought to swatch, to make sure that your FO turns out the right size.  This is all well and good.  I highly recommend swatching, for what it's worth.  But the problem is, sometimes swatches lie.  When I was pregnant with my youngest, I made myself a lovely cardigan.  One of those open front ones, so my belly could stick out the front while I was pregnant, and once I was done I could still wear it if I wanted to.  It came out just a teeny bit on the small side, but that was ok, because I swatched and knew it would grow a little bit when I washed it.  And grow it did.  The first FIVE times I washed it.  Now it is too big.  This is something of a moot point really, as it has angora in it and I seem to have developed a post pregnancy angora allergy... but maybe I could have worn it over a long sleeve shirt!  It is PRETTY!  So I suppose the point of this post is to whine.  The problem is probably that the extra weight of an entire wet sweater can sometimes stretch yarn further than it would have without the extra pull.  But it still makes me sad for my pretty blue too big sweater.