Holiday cheer, and sleeves!

xmas eve, chez boston worker bee

For god's sake, don't touch her panettone.

Special holiday wishes to Lady S, Children of Herakles, Betty Crocker, MIT SnB, and BWB readers!


I cast on this week for the first sleeve of my sweater. So far, so good!

I'd like to now take this opportunity to show off some of my mom's handiwork. For christmas, she gave me some lovely waffle-knit dishtowels and a matching potholder, that she wove on her loom. Amazing!

I'm off to Florida early (EARLY!!!) Saturday morning to visit my mother-in-law. I'm planning on stopping off at Windsor Button in downtown crossing to see if I can get some yarn to try making another spiral knit hat. The first one I did in alpaca, which stretched terribly after wearing it just two times. Oh, and ummm, then I tried to felt it, and it came out kind of crappy. Back to the drawing board.

Front is finished!

Whew! I finished the front of the sweater last night. I'll be casting on for the sleeves. Holy cow. I can't believe it.



I'm learning a lot of lessons from this pattern, and it's definitely making me a better knitter. Rule NUMBER ONE: always do a test swatch. This pattern calls for 4 balls of kid silk haze. To finish the sleeves, it'll probably bring me up to six balls of douceur et soie. Also, This weekend, I discovered a mistake I made in the pattern: the alternating stripes are supposed to end at the bust line, and the upper portion of the sweater is all lace. Like this.



However, I misunderstood the pattern, and you'll notice I ended up doing alternating stripes all the way up. I think the end result is going to make the sweater look a little dowdy. But I'm committed, so I'll deal with it.

Wait! Scratch that!

Henceforth, "M. Munroe" shall be known as "Betty Crocker"! Damn, you do make good lemon squares. BC, in answer to your question, no - I did not ask for a Mr. Misty steam hair curling set (I already have one!), however, I do still covet this.

Christmas in Rockport

Panoramic View of Rockport Harbor

I thought I'd entertain you with some photos of Rockport. I was up there visiting this weekend. I almost (and I mean ALMOST) finished the front of the sweater. I'm going to try and do that this week, and cast on for the sleeves.

A special holiday greeting to my friend in New Jersey who is studying nursing. Henceforth on this blog you shall be known as "M. Munroe" - HA! I got your holiday card and note - thanks! I loved the photos.


Home sweet home...


Don't mess with the baby Jesus?


Here we go a-lobstering


Motif #1

rowan static

Just came back from SnB, and I can't extricate my mind from the rowan pattern static that has taken over brain waves. Must. fight. urge. to. open. knitting. bag. until. five. o'clock.

gahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

why am I cursed with a long attention span.

Evil thoughts

This morning as I waited for my train, wearing my new hat, which felt like it was big enough to cover a watermelon, I began contemplating ripping the whole thing out, and trying to re-knit it on smaller needles. It's so loose and stretchy its not really going to keep its shape.

ARGHHH!

Spiral Rib Hat (Ann Norling)

Finished Project!!!!!!

Spiral Rib Hat (Ann Norling)



This pattern works for gauges 2.5 - 6

The yarn I used is Frog Tree 100% Alpaca (worsted weight), which calls for US #7 needles, which may explain why the stiches on my finished hat are so loose. If I were to do this again, I would do a test swatch first, and play around with the tension until it was just right. I would have preferred a tighter tension on this one. It was the first project I made with my new interchangeable needle set.

Also, the pattern calls for using double pointed needles in the decrease section at the top. Man, I do NOT know how to use double pointed needles. I'm hoping someone at SnB will take pity and show me how. In the process of awkwardly holding the various needles, I dropped several stitches and had to go back with some yarn and a needle and do some damage control. The recommended finished measurement for a woman's small in this pattern is 20" - WAY too much hat for me. The final measurement on this one is 8".



Well, I guess it's back to my sweater! I might pick up some extra alpaca and make a scarf to go with.

Half-a-hat

I still only have half-a-hat, which is not doing me a whole lot of good in this freezing $#%@! cold weather. I'll be sitting on the couch tonite, knitting until its done. It would be nice to have a section of my blog that's called "finished projects". Someday.

My thoughts go out to Lady S, who is going through a hard time right now. I'm with you in spirit!

No SnB today

Somthing's come up last minute that I need to take care of! I'll see you guys next thursday!

Girl's gotta have a hat

My DH is out getting us PIZZA for dinner! SWEET.

I'm feverishly working on a hat to match my winter coat, before it gets any colder. This goes against my strict rule about multi-tasking projects that end up never getting finished. BUT, it's knitting up pretty quick. The pattern is Ann Norling spiral hat, which I picked up at Woolcott. It's great because the pattern works with any gauge yarn you happen to have.



I also picked up some items at Windsor Button.



And here's somthing gratuitously cute: