Boy, if Michael Phelps compelled me to distraction two weeks ago, he has nothing on this week’s Democratic National Convention. I am in awe. I guess that’s all I can say about that.
Believe it or not, my mind has been puzzling about i-cord, and what you can do with it. And look! I’m not the only one who wonders such things. Look what I found:
What I am looking for and not finding much of is the concept of making little animals and toys out of i-cord. The snake listed above is an obvious option, but what about things like bunnies and kittens and puppies? Spiders? Crocodiles? I’ve recently become fascinated by anigurumi as an art form, and I’m wondering whether I could be just as clever with i-cord as my primary medium?
More importantly, why oh why is my mind spinning with these thoughts? I have a baby sweater to finish! Eeeek!
I’ll be sure to get photos tomorrow when it’s done for real, but look:
baby sweater with two sleeves
I finished the second sleeve while at family night at the pool tonight. So, while Diana was busy belly flopping and Steven was bouncing to the moon, there I was, under the floodlight where the light was good, knitting away.
Shower’s at 3:00 p.m. tomorrow. I want to add another buttonhole to the body, do some minor finishing, and sewing on of the buttons. We’ll see if I come even close to getting done.
Lookie! I got a sleeve done! Unfortunately I still don’t think I’m going to be done with the whole sweater by Sunday, but once in a while, miracles do happen. So, just in case I’m due for one, I’m going to keep at it. Either way, I can taste FO status coming. C’mon everybody, say it with me now:
I think I can
I think I can
I think I can
My favorite part of the sleeve is the little cuff, with the split cuff on the inside so it flips up so cute. It’s a little hard to see in the photo because the sleeve cuff is blending in with the sleeve right there, but I happen to think it’s darling. I did sort of wing it as I went, but I was smart enough to make notes on the sleeve as I worked it so that I could replicate the same sleeve on the other side.
Wanna see the cute little buttons I found?
closeup of button for baby sweater
My mom and I went shopping at Jo Ann’s over the weekend. The buttons say “genuine shell” on them, which I suppose means they’re made of seashells, but who knows? I hope they are. In any case, I think they’re a great match for the colors in the sweater.
Ok, I better shut up now and keep knitting. Keep the positive vibes coming! I’m feelin’ it!
Thanks to those who commented via the comments and Plurk. As you can see, I did start the sleeves. The first one is getting close to being done, but alas I have admitted to myself that there is absolutely no way that I can get the sweater done by the baby shower next Sunday. It’ll be close. As long as I can get it done by September 1, which at the moment seems more reasonable, I should be ok!
I’m glad now that I have two pairs of each size of smaller needles in Harmonies. I actually had the sweater on the 24″ needles, but also had a pair of 40″ needles. I knit the sweater body onto the 40″ needles and started the sleeve in the round with the 24s. I incorrectly stated the other day that I was using size 2.5 mm needles; I was wrong. They’re 2.25. I like the nice, dense fabric I’m getting, which despite the light weight of the fabric should still make for a fairly warm sweater. I don’t think I’ll be doing a baby sweater with really thin sock yarn any time again soon, though… this one is taking me forever!
Oh, and in case you’re interested, here’s a closeup of the cables:
closeup of cables
I didn’t like them at first but they are growing on me. It’s a simple braid, over 12 rows, crossing on row 5 and row 11. It’s a much more relaxed braid than the 8 row variety that is my usual favorite, so the relaxed look wasn’t doing it for me at the beginning. But as fussy as this yarn is I wanted to spread the cable crossings out a bit so that the yarn would be easier to work with. Did it help? Not sure, but I bet it probably did. I found the cables fussy to do as it is, and had to fix them several times during the process. I’m not quite done with the body length yet, so there may yet be more fixing up of this sweater as I near its finish, but I do think I’m finally getting the hang of it. We’ll see.
The title of today’s post is a nod to my favorite podcast, Cast On, and its wonderful host, Brenda Dayne. She seems to be struggling a bit with a podcast format/frequency schedule that works for her. I just wanted to give a shout out and say to Brenda that I love Cast On, and will take it in whatever way works best. Just please don’t go away. I need Cast On for the connectivity to knitters, much the same way that you say you need it. I’m glad you’re back and can’t wait for the next one, whenever it happens to be.
Over and out… I actually have to put the knitting down for the night and make some progress on some writing I’m doing. Yuck. I’d rather knit.
Congratulations on being able to achieve that which so many thought would never be done again. I am a fellow Marylander, and, with the exception of a minor dozing off incident last night, I have been watching you with most rapt attention and cheering you along.
But you see, Mr. Phelps, therein lies the problem. I have this deadline to meet. And with you being on TV nearly every night for a week now it has been hard to pay attention to what I need to do. I know you understand about making it to the finish line in time. Mine is next Sunday, and I’m never, ever going to make it if your races continue to be this exciting. I just can’t take it! I’ll never make it to the end this way.
So, do me a favor, and just knock that last one out of the park, ok? No more nail biters. I know you can do it. A nice, boring win for the last one would be ok. I’m rooting for you.
Thanks very much,
Nervous Knitter in Maryland
What Should I do?
baby sweater progress
I’m thinking at this point I should cut the yarn at the end of the row, pick up and do the sleeves, then go back and do the body. Maybe that way, I’ll have a better chance of having a completed object by next weekend? I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts. Please leave me your opinion!
Wouldn’t you know it, last night I found another mistake in the knitting. It bothered me as I worked all evening, so this morning I decided to fix it before starting my work day. (I’m feeling under the weather today and am writing this post slowly between bouts of shutting my eyes. Perhaps it’s a migraine? Don’t know… all I’m feeling is the nausea. Yuck.)
Anyway, the mistake involved skipping some stitches in a particular column, which had the effect of having several slipped stitches in the column, which resulted in having the work look like this:
accidental slipped stitches shown in purple circle
I highlighted the mistake in a purple circle so you can spot it easier. Now, I should point out that I am a huge fan of macro photography, so the mistake in the photo is much bigger than it is in reality. But, that’s how huge it felt to me, so I couldn’t let it go.
So, I dropped the stitch off the needle and laddered down to the point of the mistake. The yarn is a bit sticky so I had to coax the stitches down.
crochet hook inserted in ladder of stitches
It was time to break out Aunt Honey’s trusty red crochet hook, and after what seemed like forever, I got the stitches worked back up.The yarn was a bit splitty so it was very slow going. I often did three stitches and ripped back two, up, back down, up, back down, until I finally got to the top and could replace the stitch back onto the needle.
column of stitches after laddering back up
So here it is with the job all done. As you can see, it’s going to take a bit of blocking for the stitches to get in shape. Wish me luck on that one… back to the knitting!
