Knitting

The pieces are all knit for Devan, but I’m waffling over the sleeves. This yarn only has one solid color stripe, the sort of magenta color, and it’s quite a short length. For the fronts of the cardigan it wasn’t a problem, but the sleeves are wider – so there are places on both sleeves where that color didn’t go all the way across a row. Since I started the sleeves in exactly the same section of the yarn pattern, they’re (almost) identical – meaning the places where the magenta color doesn’t show up on one sleeve it doesn’t on the other. Should be fine, right? Nope. Because…when you fold the sleeves in half and lay them down as though they’re attached to the sweater, the back of one matches the front of the other. (Clear as mud, right? There’s a good picture on the project page.) Anyway, I guess my choices are to: 1) ignore it, because it’s still cute; 2) rip both sleeves out and knit them in the round, eliminating the “pooling” effect of knitting back and forth; 3) rip one sleeve out and start it on the wrong side – theoretically, this would reverse the striping, but then I’d have to do my increases on the purl side and they probably wouldn’t look the same.

I think I’m over-thinking this…but I could use some advice. I’m mostly just afraid that it will look like I made a mistake, since not everyone will realize that it’s self-striping yarn and I have no control over where the colors go. In the meantime, I’m going to work on something else for a day or two so I can get some distance from the problem.

Doesn’t this look a bit like candy corn? Devan is just flying off the needles, and I love it! It makes me happy just to look at it.

But for those of you who love the ladybugs, never fear: I’ve been sneaking in a row here and there and only have 10 rows left on the second sleeve! The plan is to spend the rest of Carrie’s naptime knitting those last few rows, and then to hide ends at Sit & Knit tonight. There are approximately one million ends though, so I’m going to bring Devan for when I get bored of that. (I’d guess that will be after hiding approximately 2 ends.) But if I can keep the momentum going, it might mean a steeking party this weekend – assuming I can dig out enough of my craft room to get to the sewing machine!

Devan is on the needles. Project page and pictures…tomorrow? Maybe. Suffice it to say, it’s incredibly cute!

And I was ->this<- close to finishing the second sleeve of the ladybug sweater, too. I mean, really, 42 rows - what's that, just 4000 stitches? No self control. None.

Nope, I’m not knitting. I’m procrastinating. I hate second sleeves. And I can’t find the pattern for my sock – which is a lame excuse, because it only needs a couple more inches of ribbing on the cuff and that really doesn’t require a pattern. But then again, it’s the first sock and I can’t find the pattern so I actually can’t knit the second sock. And I think I need to use the needles that I’m currently using for the ladybug sweater to swatch for Devan instead of the ones in the sock anyway.

So, all of that to say that despite being in the car for 3 1/2 hours today to visit my grandparents, I only got 20 rounds done on the sleeve – instead, I mostly napped in the car. Instead of knitting this evening, I mucked around with the template code on my blog. Instead of knitting now, I’m blogging.

This sleeve will never get finished at this rate!

OK, I have serious second sleeve syndrome. It is taking every ounce of willpower I have not to swatch for Devan and instead finish the second ladybug sleeve. I’m not sure how long I can hold out. In fact, the only thing actively keeping me from swatching right this minute (aside from the fact that I’m blogging right this minute) is that the needles I think I need are currently residing in an almost-finished sock – which is the first of a pair, so finishing it would just cause second sock syndrome!

Must.
Resist.
Temptation.

…tune in tomorrow to see whether our intrepid knitter succumbs to the lure of a new project, diligently knits the second sleeve, or compromises and finishes the ribbing on the sock…

Well, not really – it’s going to be a long time before the scarf is finished, but it’s definitely going to be worth it! It’s this pattern, and it’s Manos Del Uruguay color 107. For some reason, they call this color Sage, but I always thought sage was a green color…? This is anything but green. Anyway, it’s going to look lovely with my new blue coat.

Here’s a closer look at the texture. It’s fabulous to the touch, too, not too dense and very squishy. Now if I could just find the time to work on it, I might be able to wear it before all the snow melts!

Since things weren’t getting done on any of my current projects, I figured it was time to start something new! I’m making this scarf out of Manos. (Yes, I posted about buying blue Manos, but it clashed with my new coat so I exchanged it for a heavenly purpley-blue colorway that looks like the last edges of a sunset just before night falls completely.) I’ve never done a herringbone stitch before, and it hurt my brain to think about the instructions. I just started knitting it though, and if you follow the directions exactly as written and don’t think about it (that’s the important part) it’s actually really easy.

In other news, poor Carolyn is quite sniffly. I guess after going to Chuck E. Cheese’s and being with the whole family the next day for her baptism she was bound to be exposed to something. Poor baby. She seems to be taking it all in stride, being her usual smiley self unless we’re trying to use the evil bulb suctioning thingy, which she hates.