knit1frog2

no dice

Sooooo close...but a call today while I was at the market confirmed my worst fears...the sweater that I was almost done with, was going to be too small for my niece.

tiny puffy

While that might look like a lot of yarn left, it's a lot more sparse than it appears and I knew that I would need another ball to get both sleeves and the buttonbands done. ugh...murphy's law.  I thought about initally ordering 3, but didn't and sure enough I will need that third.  For some reason it didn't occur to me that WW would have probably brought in more than just the 2 balls that I ordered.  Sure enough, a phone call confirmed this and I was on my way across 520 to pick it up. 

What a gorgeous day today!  I didn't even mind having to stop for 20 minutes mid-span today on 520 as they raised the bridge for some boats to sail through.  I almost don't even mind having to frog back to the armholes either.

mini me

Check out what's on my needles!  But um, could mine look BIGGER?!!  sheesh.  I've never felt huger than just this minute...

for my niece

Okay, she isn't a baby or anything remotely close, but man does her sweater look tiny...or um, does mine look enormous.  yikes.

soon, very soon

Yesterday I wove in the final 3 ends (why did I wait so long??) and set the puffy into the bath to begin the blocking session.  (and yes, I thought I would wait to sew on the buttons after it blocked...when do other people sew on buttons??)  The suds kind of took me by surprise!

cold, sudsy bath

I wonder how long it's going to take for it to dry...hmm.

wet wool.  ugh.

There are probably people out there who actually don't mind the smell of wet wool.  I, however, am not one of them. 

double stuffs

Sorry I've been away so long...I was under the weather and also under a pile of 5xfrogged yarn trying to figure out how to complete the buttonband of the puffy.  I knew that it would need to be knit on smaller needles so that the band didn't scallop once buttoned and pulled across my (ahem) chest.  But after trying it, one layer was not thick enough so I started researching the doubleknit method.

It only took a few or five times to get the hang of and then I was off and knitting.  My gawd.  Seriously.  I obviously made it more complicated than it needed it to be!!!

So get this. 
After picking up 126sts down the front o the sweater, the doubleknitstuff setup began.  Once this happened, try to imagine if you will, adding a 2nd ball of sticky wooly yarn to the mix, knitting with both hands -- one hand continental, the other english and there's more...I had to remember to seed stitch.  That's right.  Knit, Purl, Knit, Purl...but twice.  OMG.  At first, I thought I'd be all thorough and if I was knitting the front stitch, well then of course I should purl the back stitch right?  Yeah, uh no.  That got SO complicated!!!

But I am proud of the outcome...check it out, it produced a nice, still buttonband:

before binding off

And just to prove that it really is doubled...here is proof!

splitting out the sts from 1 needle to 2 to bind off

forge ahead

I made another batch of peach jam tonight (some in smaller jars to share with interested co-workers) and am working on the puff-sleeved sweater.  Red plum jam is next on the list...!  Wait.  What am I going to do with all of this jam?!!  Jars upon jars upon jars are starting to stockpile in my cupboard.  It's really pretty to look at though.  Well, and tasty too of course!

yum jam.  who wants jam??

I've knit like a mad woman and made it to the part where you split the sleeves out (yay!).  Now I'm trying to figure out where to put the darts since I'm knitting not-to-pattern (eek).

This is why I press on...

cutie, no?

I can't wait to get to the point where I sew them to the (hopefully) not wavy or scallopy buttonband.

i swear

Sometimes knitting can be so relaxing...it can be such a zen experience.  Then there are other times when you've gotten the zen hit and it is rudely interrupted when you realize you've knit the wrong size...so you frog the entire thing to start over at the next smaller size...and you've been trying it on along the way...and you're really worried about it clearing your boobs b/c you hate when buttons pull the buttonband into a wavy, scalloped formation...but it does clear them (yay!) so you keep knitting...forgetting to pay attention to how it's fitting your back...and you realize that you really need to add more decreases to the back than the pattern says...because you do have a big back and smaller waist...dammit.

I have knit two, almost complete sweaters already.  Please tell me the 3rd time's the charm.

no seriously, the next one will work, right??

But I do like the decreases and increases on the front...at least I have gotten more practice with these...sigh.

I should have done these on the back too.

It's late...I need sleep. Frogging will begin tomorrow...unless I give up knitting altogether.  ugh.  But hey, I guess I can always make jam.  I made peach tonight, raspberry last weekend and blackberry the weekend before that.  so there.

dontcha

Dontcha just love when you can't put a project down and you're knittingknittingknitting so fast and furious that you find you've come to the end of a first skein and ready to add another?  You then take a look and smile at what you've accomplished so far, until you see that you've forgotten to add an increase at one of the 4 markers...and um, it's FOURTEEN rows back?!!

Yeah. Me neither. 

So I started this:

Madil Kid Seta color 725 dyelot 53694

unveiled

I can't believe I hadn't said anything earlier!  Sockapalooooza!  The person that I knit the sockapalooza socks for is Laura aka Affiknitty!!  I am seriously relieved that the socks fit her!!  HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF over here, I'm just sayin'.  She wrote a really nice post about them here.  I love that she actually liked the chocogummies!  If you haven't tried them, I know it sounds really odd, but man are they gooood.

I can't believe how many Monkeys were made this time around!  It's kind of fun to have a pair knowing that there are tons of other people who are wearing their monkeys as well!

So, the pink sweater...I can't seem to put it down.  knitknitknitknit.  Finally though, I needed to stop to give my arms a break.  You wanna see?  Take a little peek...

pink, slightly puffed sleeves?

I am really liking this so far...and I pray that I will not look like a football player in a pink sweater once I have it on my shoulders.

Now...should I make that trip to WW?  Hmmm.  Okay, if I do, this has GOT to be the last purchase until I work my way through my stash.  I've said it.  Now I've got to stick to it.  Stick to your ticket.

a little trip

The day was so overcast today and now it's pouring...I managed to get out and run all of my errands just before it started to rain.  What timing!  Now for a little recap.

What's a girl to do on a rainy day, except to put her Sockapaloozas on for an errand run?

First off, who knew that Kirkland had such a nice post office?  I didn't.  Also, big-up to the signage people who have marked our little town noting which way each point of interest is.  I thought I had an idea of where the post office was, until I realized that I was still too far North.  Sure enough, those little blue signs with the arrows pointed the way very clearly!  I half expected a townsperson from Oz to pop up from the brush with a little flower on their head...follow the little blue signs...!

After that I headed across the bridge to Weaving Works.  I have had a $20 punchcard burning a hole in my wallet for months and I've always wanted a pink sweater.  Yes.  Pink.  When I got close, I saw there was some kind of fair going on.  Great.  I thought it would be packed at the yarn store (yeah what? no idea why I thought this.).  There were 2 other cars in the lot besides me.  yay!

So...

I <3 my sockapalooza socks!

Um.  Have you seen the new Rowan Cocoon?!!  My god.  I wanted to put every single skein into my bag and run out of the store.  Seriously.  (I didn't.) This stuff is so amazingly soft (and yes expensive)...3sts of glorious, soft sheen.  yum.  I am dreaming of what I can make with it right now.  Oh, and um, faggoting.  Excuse me?!  Did you know that this is a basic lace stitch?!  The things one learns at the LYS.  Thanks to Barbara Walker's Treasury of course.

I did pick up the above yarn for a sweater that I've been knitting away on this evening.  I really needed a sweater that wasn't so involved.  That and I needed something besides the CNR to work on.  I've been pretty monogamous with that sweater for long enough (ha!).

While I was in the neighborhood, I couldn't drive home w/o stopping at Acorn Street first, right?  I wanted to see whether they also carried Karabella, alas, no.  But then again, I really shouldn't be buying more yarn when I have so much stashed already...right?  Argh. 

Although at WW, I heard a woman say she printed out her coupon from the web and I perked up.  WHAT?!!  Sure enough, I searched my mail and found the coupon.  yay!  20% off.  I may go back tomorrow.

7 sts on the bottom and 6 on the top