I have discovered the single most compelling reason to knit large, flat, multi-colored objects in the round and then cut them apart with scissors. It’s that right before you assault those thousands of precious stitches with sharpened steel you can make a comically adorable Shetland burrito.

Seriously, I think these are my favorite work-in-progress photos ever. And do you want to know what I did next, soft in the head as the terminal cuteness had rendered me?

First time using scissors. “I’m doing it, Mama! I’m doing it!” Two years, nine months, twenty-four days old and she cut a real steek. Bursting my buttons here.

If you don’t instantly recognize this pattern, it’s the inimitable Kate Davies again: Rams and Yowes. Katrin and I tag-teamed this one for our dear friend Martha’s baby Mateo, who will be arriving in the next few weeks. Actually, we had to gift it on the needles at the shower yesterday. We really should have read ahead to discover that the edging is self-faced and therefore twice as long as it looks. And a word to Americans queuing up this pattern: we ran really short of yarn. The three lightest colors all ran out during the edging; I think Katrin may have fudged it with the fourth as well, and that’s before we even got to the turning round to begin the facing, which repeats all the colors. So we’re something like 4,000 stitches short with each of the pale colors. I was baffled as to how other knitters were finishing the blanket with the recommended quantities of wool until I did some research and realized that Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift 2-Ply Jumper Weight DOES NOT EQUAL Jamieson’s Shetland Supreme Jumper Weight, formerly known as Natural Shetland, which is apparently unavailable in the United States. They are both fingering weight, but Supreme is a 4-ply yarn and there’s also a difference of 63 yards in the put-up. So if you’re substituting Spindrift, buy extra!