As The Yarn Turns

Down to the Sleeves

I've finally finished the back, the left front, and the right front of the ribby cardi, with a lot of yarn left over. Even though I knew I had purchased extra, I still worry when I end up with a lot of yarn left. I have this fear that I miscalculated and I'm knitting a child-sized sweater by accident. I haven't done any blocking yet, but here it is so far in it's curled up, unblocked, "let me sleep until you're done with the sleeves" state.

It's actually greener than it looks here. One of these days, I'll get a decent picture of it. So now it's down to the sleeves and I'll be ready to block and stitch it together. I've been procrastinating getting a zipper so I guess I need to start thinking about that too. The Shetland Tea Shawl is coming along also. I've finished one repeat of the second lace pattern, only four more to go before moving on to the last repeat and final lace pattern. Actually this one is a quick lace pattern that's easy to memorize. I just haven't had a lot of time to work on it this week. We've had some long days at the office and a trip out of town that has cut into my knitting time.

A while back I was browsing some blogs and came across a reference to the Numanuma music video online. (Sorry I've forgotten whose blog it was now.) It's been stuck in my head ever since then, to the point where I went through my history trying to find it. I cruise through a LOT of web sites. This is not something I do lightly. Then I went in search of the actual song title and artist. This is how obsessed I've been with it. It's rare that I download a song. Thanks to Joi Ito's web site, the song is "Dragostea Din Tei" by a Romanian group called O-Zone. You can find the original, fairly ordinary, video here. And scary as it is, I now have the song in my possession.

While I listen to my song again, take a look at Karin Wagner's work. She a felt artist with some absolutely beautiful felt flowers. Thanks to Linda for the pointer to that site.

by Sydney  |

Second Lace Pattern, Yeah!

I actually made some good knitting progress this weekend. I started the second lace pattern on my Shetland Tea Shawl for the EZasPi Knit Along. I actually took a break from it for a few days. For me, shawls start to feel like they are going on forever. With circular or triangular shawls, rows are getting longer and longer with the end nowhere in sight. A break now and then brings it back into perspective. Just as we were all feeling good about our progress, someone on the EZasPi Knit Along calculated that 55% of the stitches are in the final lace section. I'm amazed we all didn't stop right there. I think most of us knew that, but it's a bit of a shock seeing it in print. Anyway, here it is right before I started the second lace section, somewhat stretched out.

I'm also up to the armhole decreases on the right front section of the Ribby Cardi. It really does feel like it's zooming along. I'll be glad to get to the sleeves. That's when it starts to feel like it's close to being finished. That's assuming I don't hit "second sleeve syndrome" where I suddenly loose my motivation on the second sleeve and it languishes forever. I promise I'll put a picture of it up next time. I even got some spinning time in this weekend. I've been working on some Jacob wool that's a lot nicer than I expected.

Before I boogie on out of here, I'll leave you with some knitting inspiration. Check out these sweaters, especially if you've ever owned a guinea pig. Now I've never had a guinea pig but this is a riot.

by Sydney  |