We had a sudden downpour this afternoon that included tiny, marble-sized balls of hail. (Haildrops? Whatever.) I tried to catch a photo of the action:
rain and hail on a Sunday afternoon
Meanwhile, not a whole lot of action on the inside today, either:
baby sweater in progress
Does it look any bigger than it did the other day? The stitches are so tiny that sometimes it’s hard to tell, even after what feels like a lot of work. The kids will be away at Mom’s for most of the week though, so I imagine that there will be much knitting. Wish me luck!
Back to the Swimming… er, watching the swimming. While knitting. Come on, you knew what I meant.
Ack! Just found out yesterday that the baby shower for the recipient of this baby sweater is in two weeks! I don’t think I’m gonna make it, but I’m gonna try!
So here’s today’s update:
closeup of the cable section of the sweater
This is the cable I twisted at the pool this evening just before coming home. No dropped stitches, yay! I was having my doubts about this cable in the beginning but now I think it’s starting to look nice.
I did take a break away from the knitting today to get a totally new “do”:
my new haircut
I’ve been wanting wash-and-go hair for quite a while now. Mostly because I wear lots of hats in the winter and my hair always gets so smashed up in my hats because it’s so fine. But now, all I need is a little pomade and water, and instant hairdo! Not bad, eh? Can’t wait to give it the hat test this fall.
This morning before work I fixed some dropped stitches in my baby sweater.
baby sweater with dropped stitches again
I’m getting tired of this routine! It seems every few rows or so lately I’m having to do some major repair work. I’m pretty sure it has to do with my fatigue level, so I need to fix that, too. But for now, I’m focusing on the sweater. In the photo above you can see the extent of the damage. Not too bad, I guess, compared to some other stuff, but I do detest picking up yarnovers and trying to make them look right again.
picking up stitches from the back with a crochet hook
The job called for using my favorite go-to metal crochet hook, a red, dime store variety that used to belong to John’s great aunt Honey. (I never remember whether Honey was Mary or Frances, but she was Honey to family, and her sister was Duddie. Mary or Frances, Frances or Mary? Wait, I’m digressing…)
Anyway, I figured the easiest thing to do first would be to pick up the column of knit stitches on the purl side, the stitches that offset the cable. This wasn’t too hard. I find that when I have lots of columns of stitches to pick up, I’m constantly flipping the work back and forth, because it’s always easiest for me to pick up stitches from wherever the knit side is. I’ve never quite been able to wrap my brain about pulling the loop the other way ’round the yarn to make a purl stitch, so it’s easier to for me to just flip the work over and over, so I’m always creating knit stitches. Hey, it’s slow, but it works.
sweater is fixed again
And here is the sweater fixed once again, ready to continue with the regular knitting routine. Please wish me luck that the streak of dropping stitches is over for a while–I’d really rather be getting this project done soon.
I’ve been chugging away on my baby sweater this week. Once, on Monday night at the swimming pool, I managed to drop a cable again, though not as bad as the first time and only had to knit back one row. But then, this afternoon, I was knitting in the car (as usual) and I managed to doze off (as usual), and I let my needles slip out of the cable section in mid-snore. ARGH. I haven’t fixed it yet. I haven’t got the strength.
The thing is, I think I’m just too tired. I’ve had lots of stress at home AND at work this week, and I’ve been averaging only about 2 to 3 hours of sleep each night. It sucks! But rather than bore you with the hot, salty tears that are my knitting existence this week, I thought I’d share with you that which lifted my spirits as I came home from work this evening:
six different colors of Noro Kureyon yarn
It was my birthday present from my friend Carrie! Carrie had sent me a gift certificate to the Yarn Market and for the longest time I couldn’t decide what to do with it. I decided to get a bunch of different colors of Noro Kureyon. I plan to make a bunch of wild tams using Charisa Martin’s Lifestyle Top Down Hats formula and some wild color patterns. Should be fun! I haven’t knit a hat in such a long time, and perhaps this is what the doctor ordered to set my mood right again.
Also in the box was this wondrous little doohickey:
Wonder Knitter by Clover
It’s the Wonder Knitter by Clover (OMG! Have you ever SEEN their website? So many fibery gadgets to behold!) I have another cord maker by Bond, but I’ve never even taken it out of the package because it is limited to using thin yarns, and for playing with something like this I probably will prefer doing so with bulky yarns. In fact, I’m starting to feel the urge to collect cord makers (or spool knitters, or knitty noddies, or knitting nancys, or whatever you want to call them). Having a few antique ones would be fun. Guess I’ll keep my eyes open…
Finally, my daughter wanted to share what Tegan was doing today:
Tegan the cat sits on my photo drape and poses
Tegan is the one who always has to be in the middle of everything. I usually photograph my blog stuff in my kitchen, where the light is good, by throwing a tablecloth over a chair. Lately, Tegan has been beating me to the punch and jumping on the chair before I can ever get my knitting ready to shoot. I get the hint. Tegan wants attention. Happy now, cat?
I’ll see you when I’m more awake and my knitting is set right again. Ciao for now…
Well, I was successful in getting the sleeve stitches onto holders today before knitting group, so here is the latest photo of the baby sweater in progress. It finally looks like a sweater, no? I’m finally seeing a light at the end of this tunnel.
Now some scenes from today’s knitting group:
rhoda knitting on the BYOB bag from Knitty.com
Rhoda knitting on the BYOB bag from Knitty.com
Jo knits a shawl from handspun yarn
Dina is camera shy
(Dina is our new group member. She didn’t want her picture taken, but here she is!)
Lola knits a sweaterMarie was knitting and sharing her book stash–thanks!Me knitting on my baby sweater
Lola saw that I posted on Ravelry to Jo the other day, asking if she had a drop spindle that I could play with at group today. Jo said no, she didn’t, but then Lola surprised me with this:
drop spindle with fleece and first attempt at spinning yarn
A drop spindle to play with and a bit of roving! I tried for quite a while to make yarn tonight and it was interesting to say the least. It looks so easy when I see others doing it! Maybe I’ll have to ask Lola to give me a lesson or two. I’m thrilled that she’s letting me borrow this spindle before I buy my own, though… it’s good to figure out whether I can even do it first. So far I’ve had yarn falling apart and lots of spindle crashing to the floor stuff, and very little yarn stuff, but I think I’ll get there. Wish me luck, and what a great afternoon it was. Thanks again, ladies! I had a great time.
The cable needles I was waiting for arrived yesterday so this morning before work I set out to try to fix the dropped stitches in my baby sweater. I tried to video the process but wouldn’t you know, the batteries died in the camera before I could get it all down. So, I got a few photos, but not too many. Sorry! I’ll try to do better at documenting my next major knitting F-up. K? So in this first shot here is the cable needle, holding the stitches of the dropped cable.
Next, I’m showing you the ladders created when I unraveled the cable stitches. I’m going to pretend that each strand is like a little ball of yarn and knit from it. I will use the strands from bottom to top. Picking up the bottom strand, knitting the cable stitches onto a second cable needle, then sliding the second needle so that the stitches are ready to be knit again on the next strand, etc. until all of the stitches are knit back up. I did have to do a cable cross on the third strand up from the bottom, but it was pretty ok.
here are the strands I’m going to knit from
In the photo below, the cable is all re-knit and looking almost good as new. My eyelets on either side of the cable look a little wonky but I am going to try to not worry about it so much because I can’t quite figure out how to smooth it all over. Sigh. It’s not perfect but better than it was, for sure.
cable after being reknit
And here I am, happily knitting after having fixed the cable. Soon, I really will be able to put the sleeve stitches on holders and knit the rest of the body. I’m looking forward to being done with this sweater so I can move on to the matching hat and socks.
me, happily knitting on baby sweater after cable stitches are fixed
