moving right along...

The gauge inconsistencies are killing me. I really should have done the back first, as it looks soooo much better than the front. But anyway...the body is finished, and most importantly, it fits my daughter!! Now, off to pick up stitches and start knitting the sleeves...



(Oh, and YAY for new rechargeable batteries!)

I'm feeling kind of lost without my digital camera. I mean, it's not like being without the Internet or anything, but it bums me out.

I'm almost done with the front of my sweater and I want to take a picture of it.

Looks even better...

...now that I picked the stitches up and started the body of the sweater:



It's sooo soft, but man, the next time I go to buy cotton yarn, someone needs to stop me. Even in the round, the tension issues are kicking my butt. I hate to imagine how cranky I'll be when I actually have to purl.

In other news, my digital camera batteries have bitten the dust, both of them. I knew one was near the end, but wow, to lose both is a huge bummer. Scanning just isn't the same. And I hope my kids don't do anything extra cute before the new ones come. (I guess there's always *gasp* the film camera.)

OTN

What I decided to knit, in Elsebeth Lavold Cotton Patine:



For the Rainy Day Sweater in Miss Bea's Rainy Day. The pattern says to knit the sweater first, then knit the edging and sew it on....phooey to that, I'm not knitting this one flat! I'm doing the edge first then picking up the body stitches so I can knit as much as possible in the round. Cotton sure is beautiful, but man, the tension issues kill me.

I also picked up some Catalina Baby Pima for the Thinking Dress, which is so fantastic I want to sleep with it under my pillow. ;)

What to knit?

I'm going to my first ever knitting-group-kinda thing tomorrow...KK hit it on the nose when she said she wasn't thinking about what to wear -- she was pondering what to knit! I'm stuck there too...every project I've started this week has gone the way of the frog.

I did get a wonderful pattern book at the funnly little yarn shop today. Why is it funny, you ask? Hard to describe, but for starters, there's no name anywhere on the shop. Just a little tin sign on the outside of the building that says, "yarn." They are odd, I tell you, but they carry beautiful yarns. And lovely patterns.

Brown Sheep Prairie Silks

This is one beautiful yarn., The photo doesn't do it justice.










Unfortunately, I can't figure out what to make with it. The skeins are pitifully small (88 yards!) so it would be quite costly to make anything....say, bigger than a mitten. So I started learning a new lace pattern, just to get a feel for it. Sadly, the pattern doesn't show up too well due to the heathering. Doesn't stop me from wanting to buy a whole mess of it, though. The colors are just stunning.

In other news...frogged the soaker. The yarn, while wonderful, was just wrong for the pattern. Now I'm trying to decide what to knit at our get-together on Saturday. I've got $60 earmarked for new yarn....

How do I love Nicky Epstein?

Let me count the ways.

I really, really love how her books don't have charts in them, but rather, instructions written out row by row. I know, I know, I'll have to learn to read charts eventually. But for now? They totally confound me. I don't want to have to memorize fifteen little symbols and all that. Much too lazy.

The photo: a plait from KotE, a little learning distraction. LB Kool Wool on US10 1/2 needles.

And speaking of KotE, this is totally on my birthday list.

I caved.

Last night I decided that the two projects I have on the needles that I don't want to finish right now can wait. Life is too short to knit things that don't make me smile. Do I sound like FlyLady yet?

So I started Tiny Birds Organics' soaker, with my sheepy-farmy wool. The gauge doesn't match so it's ginormous, but it will be felted so I'm hoping it will turn out correctly proportioned. If not? Learning experience. No, I don't cloth diaper, but I have friends who do. I've been kind of intrigued with the idea of knitting a soaker, so hopefully this will get it out of my system for a while.

In other news, I hit the jackpot at a local library today...every knitting book I wanted was available. That never happens! So I'm off to finish my wine and dream about my next project...

Ugh. and Yum.

So, I got this very yummy wool from Marr Haven last Saturday. Of course I wanted to get it on needles immediately, but er, a lot of my needles have other stuff on them. So I vowed to finish my five WIPs before I started any new projects.

Sigh.

Finished my niece's hat. Finished the cable sweater. Finished the funny tank. Almost finished the odd sweater thingy (a pattern test) but it looks like I'll need another skein of WOTA to complete the sleeves. The Poncho From Hell is looking down at me. It mocks me. I so do not want to knit it because it bores me to tears.

So what's a girl to do? Knit a gauge swatch! It's not technically a new project! And let me tell you, this yarn is everything that Knitter's Review says it is. When she said that the swatch that came out of the bath didn't resemble the one that went in, she wasn't kidding. Amazing, I tell you! This is fabulous yarn! Once the wooly-farmy-smell dissapates, that is.

FO #22

Funny tank. I started this to match the baby hat with the same mini horseshoe lace edging that I am so fond of. Flat, it looks sooo funny. But it's pretty cute on a kid. Knit in Pakucho organic cotton on US6 needles.

FO #21

Cabled pullover. I got a bunch of Lion Thick & Quick for $2 a ball and decided to knit a chunky kids' sweater. After I knit the ribbing for the front I decided to throw a cable in for fun. Total knitting time: about four hours or something ridiculous like that. Really, it was sooo quick. And thick, as a matter of fact. ;) For Corbin.

FO #19 & 20

Got a chance to visit a big yarn store outside of Denver on my recent vacation. My sister was drawn to the novelty yarns...lol...made a scarf (finished on vacation) for my sweet niece, and a hat to match (finished at home). Unfortunately I forgot to take a pic of the scarf...but here's the hat. The scarf is knit from the novelty yarn used for the trim on the hat. Horrible to knit with, but very soft and yummy. (The hat: KnitPicks Merino Style on US6 needles.)