Progress

This week I decided to go back to an old project: my Perfect Sweater. As you can see from that entry, I cast on for it in mid-February. It appears that the last time I mentioned it was on April 2. That would also be the last time I knit on it. It continues to misbehave; it was in time-out for misleading gauge. I measured the armholes when I pulled it out of my bag: 7.25 inches. I needed to get to 8.75. I knit two rows, measured again out of impatience and distrust, and it was 9 inches. I swore at it a little, then decided to take what I could get and went ahead and did the shoulder shaping. And now, I have a sweater back!

I'm ignoring the fact that there's a definite line where I left off and picked back up. It's the back, and the line is high up. If I decide it really bothers me, I can always adjust the stitches later. I even cast on the front right away! At SnB tonight I got into the waist shaping. Good progress. I might actually finish this thing by Christmas!

I've also worked some on my Magic Mirror Socks. I'm about halfway through Chart B, and according to the designer, the heel should start after this chart. The designer also said that the pattern was "stretchy." Any forebodings out there? Any thoughts on what might be coming next?

I am nowhere near ready for the heel. I anticipate going through Chart A again before I start heeling. Also, it's tight. Not so tight that it doesn't fit, but definitely not what I would call stretchy. She says "snug," too--that's more accurate. She claims that the foot looks large when you're knitting it--nope. Doesn't look large to me.

I'm not trying to get down on the designer or the pattern, really. I still plan to finish them, I still love the way her finished socks look. I'm just frustrated that I'm using the right needles and the right yarn and am getting something that doesn't seem to be working out the way it's supposed to. Apparently, I'm the tightest knitter in the world.

I'm making slow progress on my Seascape Stole. I think I've done 4 rows more; not worth photographing. And I decided to wait on my birthday present--the Creatures of the Reef shawl--until I finish Seascape. I want to successfully finish a laceweight project before I jump in!

She Knits!

Ta da!

Behold, completed blaze-orange Oriole Socklets! The next time I go deer hunting nude, I'm wearing these babies to keep me safe.

I've also been enjoying the Magical World of Lace.

Just 5 more repeats of Chart B (I'm done with 1), then it's on to Chart C and after that, Finished Lace! This isn't a very difficult pattern, thank goodness, but those 83-stitch rows seem to go pretty slowly. I feel like I should be zipping along, given the width of the scarf, but that fine yarn will get you every time. I'm still really enjoying it, though.

And I'm making a little progress on the socks I started earlier this week.

It's not that blurry in real life.

That's also not the yarn I bought at ReBelle the other day. When I got home and realized that I had the exact yarn the pattern called for (although in a different color), I was so tickled that I had to use it. It's not often I use the specified yarn for any particular pattern!

I'm a very silly girl.

Can't Take a Hint

I should have known, when I got to work today and saw this lolcat

and really related to it, that perhaps today would be a good day to go home and go back to bed.

It started with a project I'm working on that involves burning image files to DVDs. I've done this dozens of times before and never had a problem, but for some reason it just wasn't working today. It took me all morning and several DVDs destroyed in frustration before I realized that the settings were telling my computer to burn files to the wrong drive. D'oh! I was convinced I had faulty DVDs. It seems to be working just fine now...

I decided to cheer myself up with some fun lunchtime knitting. The pattern today on the free daily pattern site I like is awesome. And I thought it would be a perfect thing to do at lunch. My only stumbling block was my lack of needles and yarn. But I had a plan.

On the left is the cursed ball of red Sockotta. In the center is a coil of yarn that was frogged and then wrapped around the ball. On the right is the Cursed Sock/Armwarmer-to-be, threaded onto a length of its own yarn. My brilliant plan was to knit from the outside of the ball on my newly-freed DPNs.

I have to give myself a little credit; I didn't even cast on before I realized how idiotic this plan was. What's a girl to do?

A girl is to drive to ReBelle, that's what, because it's closer to her office than her apartment is. A girl is throw her plan not to buy more sock yarn right out the window and also pick up some 40" US 0 circs. And a girl is to do this:

..and realize, after casting on and knitting 4 rounds, that it's time to work again, and she won't get to knit on it anymore until she goes home for the evening--to her apartment, where she has mountains of sock yarn.

I cannot brain today. I have the dumb. Is it 5:00 yet?

Fabulous New Hair

I can't knit right now--I'm too busy running my fingers through the glory that is my new hairstyle.

I haven't had an actual style since, oh, I don't know... 2002? So it doesn't look nearly as good in this picture as it did on Saturday, when it was styled by someone who actually knew what he was doing. All the same, I'm madly in love with it. And I will get the hang of styling it sooner or later! (I will also get the hang of allowing the hair on my left side to hang a little bit in my face. It's not supposed to have the weird swoop over my forehead--it's supposed to fall in a graceful line.)

For those who don't know me in real life, as of Saturday morning my hair was very straight, all one length, and roughly down the the middle of my back. Now I have layers! And body! And even a teensy bit of volume!

A big thank-you goes to Tim, who took my vague instructions ("Cut a bunch of hair off and give me a fun but not-too-labor-intensive or product-heavy style, and leave at least as long as my chin, please") and gave me something beautiful.

Curses! Foiled Again.

Remember how I was taking a chance on the cursed yarn again?

Bad idea.

With a few stumbles, I did manage to get the pattern going reasonably well. I've got probably 3 inches of pattern knit, and I was feeling pretty good. Then I looked closely, and realized that it looked... kind of small.

I pulled it onto my foot--and stopped at the heel. Because it wouldn't go any higher. Insert foul language here.

However, Robyn had an excellent idea--add a thumb gusset and make it a hand/armwarmer. Take that, cursed yarn! That doesn't mean I'm not still grumpy about it, though.

Stupid yarn.