my milo may milo

I'll be honest with you. 

I meant to knit this milo 12 months ago. 
This was supposed to be the milo I knit for milo may 2012, but I didn't do it. Instead, the lure of the noro sucked me in yet again and I knit a milo in silk garden lite for my niece. 

While I'm being honest with you, I'll admit that I hadn't knit a milo for the milo boy since June 2011. Yep, that's two years ago. And when Toby put a milo on at the start of the cooler weather this year, this was pretty  obvious!  

I knit this milo over three days, such a quick and easy knit. I still enjoy knitting milos even after all these years and even though this was my 21st milo. 

During milo may, I had someone ask on facebook if I had to ever refer to the pattern when I was knitting a milo. You know, I thought this was an awesome question. It seems to be a common belief amongst knitters, judging by questions by friends who knit as well as those who send emails, that designers do retain an intimate knowledge of their patterns.

Maybe other designers do, I'm not sure, but I certainly don't. I think I'd be surprised if they do.  I'd love to hear your point of view if you are a designer. Do you remember more of your older patterns than I do?

So while I do know the structure of this pattern pretty much off by heart when knitting a milo, there is no way I can possibly remember the stitch counts or the lengths for all the sizes, particularly as I haven't knit them all.  I've had so many numbers for other patterns, another 50 or so to be precise, go through my head since I wrote this pattern. In fact, when knitting this milo I did insert the stitch marker in the wrong place simply because I didn't actually follow the pattern that closely! 

It's the same when answering an email/pm about a pattern. I'm not sure that knitters realise that this is involved as it is. It does mean getting out a copy of the pattern and re-reading it every time a new question or query is asked. It's very rare I can actually answer a query without having to refer or double check with the pattern.

Digressions aside.

Project details:

Pattern: milo
Needles: 3.75mm and 4mm Knit Picks fixed circulars.
Yarn: Vintage Purls Max (75% merino/25% nylon) 227yards/100grams   Colourway: Lemon Squeezy
Size: 21" knit to size 5 length for my big four and a half year old

No matter how much I love this yarn, and oh my god, I do adore this yarn; it probably wasn’t the best choice for a milo. It has nothing to do with the colour and more to do with the drapey aspect of this yarn.

That’s not to say I’m not happy with this milo, I most certainly am! This colour is superb for when he runs off through the bush…. I. will. not. lose. him. anywhere! Even when he chooses to wear an outfit that camouflages perfectly with the surrounding landscape…

There is absolutely nothing wrong with knitting a milo in a yarn such as this; one which is superwash and has plenty of body and drape. It’s just not my personal preference for a milo. For a milo, I like something that is more sturdy, perhaps even nubbly or tweedy. I definitely prefer a handwash. I think that it sits better around the shoulders and the chest too, if it’s less likely to suffer the fate of stretching that often comes with a superwash yarn.