The Sweater is Finished

and has been for awhile.  I just forgot about it, stay-at-home being so hectic and all. 

Hah.

So here it is: 

In the fall I will get to wear it, I hope.

And I was bored, so I've made scones using what was labeled as a British recipe.

Here they are:  

The pasty yellow ones are bland; they need clotted cream and strawberry jam.  They were supposed to have blueberries in them, but I forgot.

These turned out ok.  AND I remembered the blueberries, and I used a larger wine glass to cut them out of the dough.

I don't know why the Great British Baking Show has not called me.  

I am such an organized, clean baker: 

As long as they don't mind breakage, I'm their girl.

I broke the wine glass I used for making the circles for the first batch; I was holding it by the base.  

I'm currently making something resembling strawberry jam for the pasty-looking scones.

I'm not using a recipe so wish me luck!  

Almost Finished!

The Throwback by Andrea Mowry

Sort of, if I don't consider that I still need to:  

Pick up stitches around the neck and knit the ribbing.
Pick up stitches on each side of the front opening and knit the ribbing.
Weave in all the ends.
Wash and block the whole thing.

So there's a lot to do yet, but I do see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I'm also knitting some socks:

Basic sock pattern by Janet Stephens

I am halfway done with the second sock, so again, light at the end of the tunnel.

AND next!

Perfect Blend by Casapinka.  Twelve colors (Miss Babs yarns) and twelve different stitches.  That should be fun, but first, I must finish the sweater.  Says I.  

I might not be listening.

Wow!

It has been a long time since I have been here, but I have made some progress on my sweater:

It's sort of weird looking, but it hasn't been blocked and that won't happen until I have finished knitting the whole thing. I did start a sleeve, picking up live stitches and casting on about eight more for the required total of 62 stitches.

Then I started knitting, and according to the pattern, I should be decreasing two stitches every 8 rows. I did that and then tried on the sweater. The sleeve was very form fitting, skinny, narrow, tight, all of those things.  

So I performed what I call a "Sally™,"which involves yanking the needles out of live stitches and pulling out row after row after row. I’ve seen Sally do this over and over, and each time, any knitters present, including yours truly, gasp. It will all unravel. She will lose stitches and NEVER get them back, we all fear.

She has never had anything unravel that she didn’t want to unravel, and she doesn't lose stitches, at least not in the presence of other knitters. ( We don’t know what happens at home.)

I pulled back row after row, and then stitch by stitch, took back the first row that I had made decreases in. I came out with the right number of stitches, and, my theory is, that I can just work with that number of stitches, no decreases, and keep trying the sweater on.  If it looks as if I can make some decreases further down the sleeve, in order to have the right number of stitches for the ribbing section, then that’s what I will do.

I probably ought to write down what I do so that I end up with two identical sleeves, right?

So It's Been Awhile

So here's an update.  Yes, the bathroom project in the previous post is finished.

Yay!


I am back to knitting, working on some socks

String Theory Colorworks, colorway Inertia

and a hat (that I am probably going to run out of yarn for) in order to continue avoiding the sweater project I'm intimidated by. The Throwback by Andrea Mowry.  

With these colors:

As I was shopping on wandering around the internet today, I found these bobbins:

Photo by Crafty Flutterby Creations

Aren't they cute?!

And I NEED them, right, for the areas where I don't have to carry a lot of yarn.

I suppose I could have gotten by without them, but why do that?  They will be on their way on Monday.

I do hope they are coming on a slow boat  from China.  

Dear Diary,

Dance as if no one is watching. check

Sing as if no one is listening. check

Write as if no one is reading. check!

That I can now do because I announced to the world in general that I was not writing any more posts, and so I imagine that no one gets notices that there is a new post, and yet here I am again. Talking to myself, as it were.

But I have knitting news and it has to go somewhere:

I'm working on my second Cowboys and Angels.  The first one came out really well and it was fun to make so why not make a second in a more neutral color?  So I am.  Also it serves to put off starting work on theThrowback Sweater.  It is going to be such a difficult knit because it involves stranding ON THE BACK SIDE, which I hear is torture.

I am also working on a pair of socks because having two WIPs definitely stops me from working on the sweater.

I'm using Knitjan's basic pattern, the only one I've ever used. (Magpie Yarns Swanky Sock, color Très Bien)

Swanky indeed; it has cashmere in it!  

So the yarn for the Throwback Sweater lies dormant, waiting for me to work up the desire to knit it.

Someday it might look like this:

A girl can dream.

Yay Me!

I rode my bike this morning all bah mahself!  I know what you're thinking---big deal. But it's the first time in years that I've ridden alone because of the time I fell and broke my wrist.

I always ride with my husband so that he can call 911 when I fall. He is in SC today, so I rode with my trusty "Help I've fallen and I can't get up watch," and the phone it calls 911 from. So in that regard, I was prepared and ready to go.

However at about the 3/4 point of my ride, I had to stop and walk the bike over some curbs between neighborhoods, and I discovered that my kickstand was down.  Ooops.

It's a good thing I hadn't needed to make any sharp left turns, although, when I told my husband what I had done, he said that the kickstand would have gone up if it had hit anything.  I'm just glad I didn't have to learn that firsthand.


In other totally unrelated news, I am making this wrap out of exactly this yarn in exactly this color.  

Cowboys and Angels by Isabell Kraemer

It appears that I will do anything to avoid starting work on the Throwback fair isle sweater.