Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Progress


Reflected snow light may not be ideal for pictures. But it's all we're getting today, our fourth snow day in three weeks. It's not a blizzard, but it's been coming down steadily all night and morning, and we're supposed to get more than a foot. Already I couldn't figure out where to put the snow I was shoveling from the driveway; I have no idea how those poor people in northern New York are managing with 11 feet and more coming.

Anyway, the hoodie! I am up to the armholes. It is going faster than I expected – the pattern is easier (and, I have to admit, more boring) than I thought. There is the one row of cable twist every 10 rows, and all the rest are the same. But as a result it makes for excellent tv knitting.

Also it is appears it may be going to be a bit large! Well, I knew that might happen. It's currently at least 20" wide, and the swatch grew widthwise (and shrunk lengthwise) when I washed it ... I might wash the back before I start the front to make sure it is not going to reach disastrous proportions!

Off to an impromptu snow day/Valentine's Day party at the neighbor's ...

edited to add:

I meant to mention: this is only slightly more than one skein of Cascade 220. It is amazing how much you can knit with one skein, especially after you've been using itty bitty balls of Debbie Bliss. I'm very psyched about the shortage of ends to weave in!

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Pretty.

That's the sock yarn I bought yesterday on sale. I've been coveting Cherry Tree Hill for a while now. And it's just too pretty to put away in a box without a picture first.

There. Now that I've lured you here with pretty candy yarn, let me bore you with some obsessiveness. And possibly the most boring blog pictures ever:

I re-did my Central Park Hoodie ribbing in 6, because on 7s it just didn't seem ribby enough to me. It seemed a little bit floppy, like it was already stretched out. And I like the way it looks on 6s, just now I'm all paranoid that it's going to pull in too much and ruin the look of the sweater. My body will stop it from pulling in very far, though, right? You probably can't even tell the difference in this picture. Ribbing on 7s is on top, 6s on the bottom. The new ribbing is being stretched out by the curve of the pillow it's on, otherwise it would boing quite far in. But that's not very much force, is it.

I detest insignificant decisions like this! I just need some reassurance that it IS insignificant, and that I can go ahead. Below is a slightly closer up look at how far I've gotten. (I would be farther but, you know, I did the ribbing twice ...) Cables amaze me – how just one row affects what all the other ones do. It looks so much trickier than it is.


edited to add: Actually I changed my mind AGAIN and am going to go with the 7s. Just so I could knit the whole thing twice. Anyway, I'm decided, I'm feeling good about it, and I'm going ahead with it!

Friday, February 09, 2007

Swatched and Ready to Go



So I think I am in the process of switching to Google Blogger, or whatever it's called. I say I think because I thought I had, and yet I just signed in on my old account. Among the complications I had making this switch was the fact that I could not remember my gmail address, let alone my password. Wouldn't you think I would have a record of it somewhere? I cannot find it. Hopefully my husband does.

Anyway, I switched because I am joining the Central Park Hoodie Knit-a-Long, which may or may not require a Google account. And because all the cool kids are doing it. However, since I know it will draw all my many many readers here with promises of new posts, I thought I'd better give you one.

The Central Park Hoodie, ready to go! And it only took three years of yarn acquisition from multiple yarn stores in multiple states (and multiple dye lots, but we won't mention that) and – most importantly – multiples of multiples of emails from MK Kathy figuring out the numbers. We are not blaming her if it doesn't fit. We would NEVER. :)

We are excited, because we have never made a sweater for ourself, precious! Oh wait. We thought we were channeling the Queen, because we just saw that movie, and now we seem to be channeling Gollum instead. Perhaps we need to end this post, and do us some laundry.

We hope we will have progress to report soon!


p.s. There are two different dye lots in this picture, but I am hoping you can't spot them.