Sunday, April 29, 2012

Theme-a-licious Amazon April Wrap-Up



Well, I didn't get to everything I wanted to during Amazon April, but progress is progress, right? Here is where Random Thoughts ended up:
The little stitcher down there seems to be pointing accusingly, "Why did you go over and stitch that 'V' instead of GIVING ME FEET??" I...I have no answer for her.

I did also get one sleeve done on my Origami Turtle (NOTE: still not an actual turtle)
The reason I got this done is because it's relatively mindless, and work hasn't been leaving me with much of a mind these days.

Now it's time for...
May Memories
Remember when you took that class? Or decided to commemorate that event? And then abandoned your poor WIP? Take a stroll down memory lane by working on it again.

I initially came up with this theme because I have taken a lot of needlework classes in my life. A LOT. But you could also use this month to work on your oldest WIP(s)! Or maybe look for one you've set aside, and now you can't remember why!

This is going to be a short month for me, because we are going to be in Europe for part of it. Plus, work is going to continue to be rough, AND I have a travelling pattern that has arrived here that I need to get done! So, here's my list...
  • Blackwork Band Sampler - This will be great to work on when I go to Orlando for Sun Region EGA's Stitcher's Celebration
  • Les Rubans Anciennes - yes, again. =) Part of the fun of Theme-a-licious is figuring out how the project you WANT to work on fits in with the theme
  • Grandmother Star Temari - See, there's this NEW temari class I want to take...



So how did Amazon April turn out for you? What are you planning for May Memories? Please add your link below (to your wrap-up post), and visit some other Themers if you can (everyone loves comments and encouragement!) Our next post will be on the 15th, when we'll check in for May Memories! And don't worry if you haven't posted before...just jump in whenever.




1. Ruths Little Leprechauns
2. Roses Crafts
3. Terris April Report
4. Serendipitous Stitching April
5. Sherrie@ Food for Thought
6. Squirrel Nuts
7. Therapy-by-Thread
8. Already Forgotten
9. thread garden
10. Its Daffycat
11. Measis Musings
12. Chic Crafting
13. Shebafudges April update
14. Annettes Theme-a-licious Post
15. Jackies Stitches



This linky list is now closed.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

The Geekend That Was, 4/22 (Or, Purl Goeth Before a Fall)

Click now for JiffNotes

Know what happens when you write a post where you make out like you've totes conquered lace (I AM LACE NINJA, RARRR!) and give out lots of advice? (Thank you all for the nice comments, by the way! You guys made my weekend.)

THIS:
 
THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS. I clearly am unable to follow my own advice about knitting lace. In my defense, I did try to convert the line-by-line text-only instructions to a chart, but I couldn't make it happen on low brain power, so I decided I was invincible and to just knit it anyway.

We see how that went for me. In my defense, the pattern had a few other problems...i.e., when I was allllmost finished, I noticed it did not look like the picture! And not in an "oops, look at my charming mistakes" kind of way...in a "hey, the designer decided to redesign the pattern and then NOT CHANGE THE PICTURE" kind of way. I will neither confirm not deny that I cast a dirty look at the hubby when he said, "But you saw this on someone else's blog and liked it and hers had the 'mistake', too...so at least it looks like one you liked!" RIIIIIIIIIIP. I think I figured out where to add back in the extra stitches, though, which I'll add in WHEN I CHART IT. I will no longer IGNORE MY OWN ADVICE.

So. I was going to take part in the 3rd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, but I kinda decided to do it at the last minute, without knowing what the topics were, and once I finally hunted them down (I thought I'd get an email, but no), I realized this was going to require way more time than I have. The light at the end of the tunnel I saw last week at work did indeed turn out to be a train, and I hate life pretty badly right now, as evidenced in part by my apparent sad tendency to write scary long run-on sentences!

The weekend started out well; we actually had stitch group after a long hiatus, with yummy food and great fellowship, and I actually got some stitching done on Random Thoughts! (You gotta wait 'til next week for the picture; I'm such a tease. =) Two of my DFs gave me a late birthday present; they got it at the American Craft Council show!
 
I love wearable art! The medallion is about an inch and a quarter in diameter. Don't you love the chain? I've never seen one constructed quite like it. I got many compliments on this necklace as Stitches South.

WHAT'S THAT?? Oh, yeah, rampant stash acquisition...I fell off whatever wagon I thought I was on the MOMENT I hit the Market, as my peeps were right by the Urban Gypz booth.
 
SUSHI STITCH MARKERS!! And, of course, yarn...wound into cute weensy skeins for the purpose of hexipuffing. Which I will start any day now; look out!

Next I fell victim to Dragonfly Fibers, where I entered the booth and these yarns flung themselves off the rack and attached themselves to me.
 
SO SQUISHY. I wanted to walk around the rest of the show just squeezing them. Which, in retrospect, would have been a great idea because it might have kept me from buying any more yarn. There was a GORGEOUS example of a Daybreak shawl in the booth (not in these colors), which inspired the purchase, but I think these are actually destined to become a Catkin. And did you see the name of the brown skein???!? NORBERT. Powerless to resist, I tell you.

Speaking of powerless to resist, take a gander at these lovelies:
 
The colors are a little bit richer than they look here. When I voluntarily expose myself to this level of yarn fumes, I try to take a short list with me from my Ravelry queue so I'm not just buying completely random yarn, and one of the things on my list was two colors of a sport weight yarn for the Tuck Shawl. I don't think these are going to work for that, but I think they'll be lovely as Andrea's Shawl (only it'll be Heather's Shawl). Or maybe Lady of the Manor? Or maybe one of you has a better idea and I'll be all like, "OMIGOSH, I HAVE THE BEST READERS!!!"

My only other purchase is currently en route to England accompanied by other Atlanta-themed goodies. =)

Sunday was going to be one of those days when I got lots of random little chores done and then relaxed. Result: SOME random little chores done, including cheerleading the hubby as he took apart our washer/dryer combo. DANG, that thing is heavy. He is the best, EVER, for fixing it. Or, he will be once that annoying new error code goes away.

He was awfully excited when his renewed passport came in the mail. He said something like, "I think I won! I had no idea I was even entered!"
 
Silly boy. =)

JiffNotes
I came, I shopped, I may someday like work again.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Teeny TUSAL

(What's a TUSAL?)


Whoops...I'm a day late here, but as you can see by the scanty ort blob, I wasn't using the extra time to cheat and stuff the ort jar!

Friday, April 20, 2012

Notes on Branching Out (Beginning Lace)

Click now for JiffNotes

So when I finished Leafy (aka Branching Out), I never did give it a good glamour shoot.
This isn't one, either, but I did want to share some lessons I learned during the process.

This was the first real lace project I started, so I was pretty much a lace idiot at the beginning. Maybe talking about my mistakes will help someone out there avoid the same thing.

Lesson One: It's all about YO

So what happens when you get to the end of a row, and although you have symbols left on the chart, you have no stitches remaining on the left needle with which to knit them??
PANIC! THROW THE KNITTING ACROSS THE ROOM! TEAR YOUR HAIR OUT!!! ZOMIGOSH, NOOOOOOOO!!!

Ahem. You have to CALMLY figure out where you went wrong. Now, I have some chart-reading notes later that may help you avoid this happenstance. But I found that in my case, the problem almost ALWAYS was that I forgot to do a yarn-over somewhere.

Since this design is vertically symmetrical, it's usually pretty easy to tell where you missed it:
Mmm hmmm...should be a YO stitch on either side of that center line, between it and the leaves. Since this pattern is just purls on the wrong side, this is really easy to fix.

In fact, it's so basic that I almost didn't do this post, but then I thought...HEY, remember the first time you fixed a YO? You were so stinkin' impressed with yourself! Like it was a big deal!

Well. It WAS a big deal at the time. It arose from much thinking and consternation rather than Googling. So maybe I can save you some of that consternation.

Let's clarify here. Two rows before this one, where I've frogged back halfway, I missed a yarn over. One row before this one, a purl row, I would have purled that YO and ended up with a stitch on the needle where there is no stitch right now. It would have looked just like the one to the left of the center line, like so (click to embiggen):
This mistake is almost as easy to fix as it is to make. We're going to pick up a "bar" between two stitches with a small crochet hook, catch another bar, and put that second bar on the needle. The stitch circled in purple (the "second bar") is going to end up on the needle.
But we can't just pick that up and put it on the needle; that'd be like we did a YO on the purl row. So we'll put our hook in UNDER the PINK-circled stitch, or bar (the purple one's now resting on my left-hand ring finger)...
...hook the purple stitch from the front...
...and pull the purple one through!

Stick it on the left needle, and we're ready to knit!
Now this stitch, the center stitch, and the one to the left of center participated in a 2-stitch centered decrease (or slip 2 tog, knit 1, pass slipped stitches over), so I won't show that. But here's the fixed, symmetrical row:
Notice that this time I remembered the YO on either side of that center stitch.

Lesson Two: Throw yourself a Lifeline

So I'd heard about this nifty concept called a "lifeline" and even though I am perfect and would never need to rip back (BWAHAHAHA), I thought that if a lifeline was good enough for Regis Freakin' Philbin, it was good enough for me. So I pulled out some pearl cotton and a large tapestry needle and put one in, thusly:
This is actually a Chibi needle with a bent tip; great for sliding under the stitches. Thread it all the way across, being careful not to go through any yarn strands, and leave a 3-4 inches hanging on either side. Then on the next row, pretty much ignore that lifeline and knit as usual...just don't let it pop up over the needle while you're knitting. You want it to stay "in" the stitch where you threaded it.

Here's the lifeline after one row is knit:
PRO TIP: Write down what row you put the lifeline in! Otherwise it's slightly less useful.

I have since heard the BEST tip. If you're using interchangeable needles with that little hole through the shaft, you can just thread your pearl cotton (or similar fiber) through that hole, knit across the row, et voilà, your lifeline is threaded!

So what's it good for? OMIGOSH, I MADE A MISTAKE (i.e., Heather missed a YO) FIVE ROWS BACK! To pull up the stitch, I'd have to somehow pull it through a k2tog, a p, and a sl2-k-psso among other things?? HEAD EXPLODES.

No. You probably can't just "pull up" that missing YO if it's that far back. This is more likely to happen earlier in the lace, when you just have a chart and a few rows of lace that don't "look like" anything. Once pattern understanding happens, you'll likely have caught that mistake earlier (see lesson three). So, if you have a lifeline, you do a slightly-less-scary-but-still-unnerving thing instead:

You take your needle out and gleefully pull on that loose yarn until you hit pearl cotton!

WHEEEEE!!!!
Then you put it all back on the needles. I did take some pictures of this; let me know if you're interested in seeing them. Remember when you wrote down what row the lifeline was in? YOU DID DO THAT, RIGHT?? Good. Now just start knitting from there. I moved my lifeline every repeat, religiously, until I "understood" the pattern.

Lesson Three: Respect your ancestors

So what is this "understanding" the pattern you speak of? Well, for me, it has to do with two things: 1) knowing "where" you are in the lace while knitting across a row (for example, in this pattern, knowing that k3tog is making the top of a leaf, or knowing I'm in the center, and there should be a center vertical line going alllll the way up the design) and 2) knowing what stitches you are knitting.

DUH, you say, How can I knit a stitch without knowing what I'm kniting?

Let me explain #2. It's not the stitch you're creating, it's the stitches you're creating it WITH. Stay with me here. If I'm doing a k3tog, it matters very much what 3 I'm k-ing tog. If I'm supposed to be knitting a YO, k and a YO together, and I am actually knitting two k's and a k2tog, that probably means I missed doing two YOs! If I catch it at that point, rather than when I "run out" of stitches at the end of the row, or, heaven forfend, FIVE ROWS LATER, it's much easier to fix.

Here is where the chart can help you. You should be able to look at that k3tog you're doing and see from the chart what it's made up of. It's also helpful if the chart kind of "looks" like the lace you're knitting. The chart provided with this pattern wasn't helping me...I couldn't "see" the leaves. So I recharted it. (Disclaimer: I don't own this design, and this chart won't make that much sense to you without it, so go get it here! You're welcome to print this chart out or link to it so long as you don't claim it as your own. ALSO NOTE: I wrote the directions for sl2, k1 , psso WRONG in the key. IGNORE IGNORE IGNORE.)
See? Now you can sort of see the leaves. Now take a look at the k3tog at the right side (beginning) of row 7. If you look down two rows (my chart includes the WS purl rows) and look at the symbol immediately below it, and the two symbols to the right and left, you can see that I should be knitting together a ssk, YO, and another k3tog. Now maybe you can't tell the different between a ssk and a k3tog (like I couldn't when I was knitting this). BUT you can definitely tell the difference between a ssk and a k. Or a YO. If what you're knitting together doesn't look right, figure out where you went wrong NOW! This pattern may only be like 25 stitches across...but what if you were doing one that was 125 across! (I also like to mark "repeat" sections when I'm working lace...at least until I can see the pattern and then check each repeat.)

I hope this helps someone!

JiffNotes
Lace is cool. But it's even cooler if you never have to rip it back!

Hey! For more Finished Objects, with probably a much higher picture-to-blah-blah-blah ratio, head over to Tami's Amis for FO Friday! Or how about Creative Friday at Natural Suburbia? Or even Fiber Arts Friday at Wisdom Begins in Wonder?? Visit 'em all!

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Wiiiiinerrrrrs!!!!

I finally got Ye Olde Random Number Generator (aka my darling hubby) primed, so I have the winners of my blogiversary giveaway! (Clearly, I'm going to spell that however I feel at the moment!)

First, the earrings...along with a little something I'm going to try to throw together...go to...

JO!
And after seeing her earring collection, I think it was a very fortunate pick! =)

And now, the Atlanta giveaway goes to...

PINKUNDINE!
I had a lot of fun getting goodies for this giveaway...I tried to get Atlanta-themed things that would still be useful (or just plain fun). And I didn't even visit half the places on my list! I need to do another of these soon. I'll do a reveal of the package once it has arrived...I want it to be a surprise!

If you ladies will send me your snail mail addresses (to heather at lottloft dot com), I will get these packages out pronto!

Monday, April 16, 2012

The Geekend That Was, 4/15

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We had THE most gorgeous weather this weekend...warm but not too hot, clear and not too humid. We were pretty wiped out from the week...although I did get some relief at work on Thursday afternoon (I can now see a light at the end of the tunnel, although I will not rule out the possibility that it's a train). Anyway, we got a late start on Saturday, but we ran by the library to pick up some books and DVDs to prepare us for our upcoming Europe trip. Not having cable, I had never experienced Samantha Brown before. I gotta say, that although her perkiness might get to me eventually, her aversion to cold and affinity for cool, nice hotels would make us good travel partners. ;)

Before the library, however, we ran a few blogiversary-related errands. I haven't forgotten my giveaway!! I'll announce the winner tomorrow, I promise. I usually conscript the hubby into "drawing" service and it seems like we haven't had two free seconds lately...but maybe I'll let the SCOD decide this time! Anyway, our first stop was the Atlanta History Center, where I was looking for a very specific item (score!). Now I am the last person to wax enthusiastic about anything with "history" in its title, but we had a great time! We were only planning on hitting the gift store and the garden, but when we arrived, we found out there was a Sheep to Shawl festival going on!

I know at some of these events there are competitions where they actually do start with a sheep and end up with a knitted shawl, but this wasn't one of them.

However! I did get to see a sheep get shorn!
 
I couldn't BELIEVE how much wool came off this little sheepie!

Another animal whose fur I'm fond of knitting...
 
I don't know if you can see his sign, but it says "Dudley the alpaca. I do not spit!" LOL.

There were the sweetest curly-haired goats (so soft!), a burro, a miniature pony, a crazy-looking rooster and a giant rabbit, but I didn't want to make any parents nervous by photographing their children who were petting them. =) (You don't know what gymnastics I went through to get Dudley's picture!) But take a look at this sweet Highlands Cow!
 
And I thought Jersey cows were cute. I mean, they are...but look at Lily here!! The best part of the petting "zoo" was that it was on the grass, in the shade, with no fence around the animals (they were tethered or in open-top cages or wagons). They had brushes you could use on the animals and it was fairly uncrowded.

And now for something completely different:
 
Spinning! The lady in the hat is warning me she might break my camera (I asked if I could photograph them). I told her not to worry, her hat brim saved it, LOL!

After looking at all the kids' activities (dipping candles and story time were very popular), we wandered into the quarry gardens (situated, unsurprisingly, in an old quarry).
 

The rhododendrons were starting to bloom!!
 

If you ever do go to the History Center, do take the tour of the Swan House. It's totally worth it.
 
This view is only visible if you take the short walk through the woods, or book a really ritzy reception and get to come in the front drive. =)

The walk back was through the Asian garden. It features Asian plants and their Southern counterparts.
 

And more rhododendrons!
 

After the History Center, we went and got plants for the deck. Hopefully I can share pictures soon! It was pretty late by the time we got home; we only managed to watch half of Amadeus. =)

Sunday after church there were more blogiversary errands, an emergency power cord drop-off for DF Teresa who was in town for a class (LOVELY canvases I saw there!), and epic planting on the deck. I was so exhausted at the end of the day from walking around all over and planting that I could hardly move! So no stitching happened. =( Ah, well, you can't have everything!!

JiffNotes
This much pollen in one weekend is still not good for me.

Please Stop the Stupid, Groupon

Take a look at Groupon's Earth Day Celebration page here. I'll wait.

Done?

OK, just in case the link doesn't work for you (or it's forcing you to sign up and you don't want to...OR THEY HAVE HOPEFULLY PUT A HALT TO THE CRAZY):

Are you as flabbergasted as I am?? My email to customer service said, in part:
The Egyptians (to pick an old culture at random) would beg to differ with you. And remember that whole Y2K problem we had? Did you know that the "Y" in "Y2K" stands for "Year"?

My mental capacity and imagination are unable to stretch far enough to come up with a plausible explanation for what they're thinking. Earth Day was first celebrated in 1970 in San Francisco, so they can't have meant "40". Even strictly literal Biblical interpretations would say around 6,000! It wasn't a typo, because I got an email with different text that referred to the "400th" birthday and hoping we could make it to our "401st".

MAKE THE STUPID STOP!

[ETA]: Groupon customer service emailed me back and said that the copy was meant to be humorous. What do you think? Did it come across as humorous or just nuts?

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Theme-a-licious Amazon April Check-in



It's time for us to check in with our progress for Amazon April! I must tell you that coming off of March Madness, it feels like I haven't done that much! Especially since I started working on Les Rubans, and ribbon #2 is very labor-intensive. What's so sad is I know some of the others are even MORE labor-intensive than this one! I did manage to finish one section of the ribbon:

Here are a few more shots so you can see how dimensional those crescent stitches are...


And the whole thing as it stands now.
*sigh* Only two more sections of this ribbon to go! I will be very happy to go back to a linen project. Stitching the final crescent was NOT fun. I had to do some major digging to find the proper holes, I miscounted at least a dozen times, and pushing the needle through the canvas makes my finger sore after a while. (I know, I know, I should use a thimble, but I never learned to stitch with one, so I'm afraid it would slow me down terribly.) But it *is* going to be gorgeous once it's done!

I also continued to plod along on my Origami Turtle cardigan. Here's about half of a sleeve:
Next up: Random Thoughts!



So how's Amazon April going for you? Much more sedate than March Madness, yes? =) Please add your link below (to your wrap-up post), and visit some other Themers if you can (everyone loves comments and encouragement!) Our next post will be on the 30th, when we'll wrap up Amazon April and make plans for May Memories! And don't worry if you haven't posted before...just jump in whenever.




1. Therapy-by-Thread

2. Sherrie@ Food for Thought
3. Ruths Little Leprechauns
4. Serendipitous Stitching April
5. Julies update
6. Chic Crafting
7. Karoline
8. shebafudge mid month update



This linky list is now closed.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

WIP Wednesday (New Start)

Click now for JiffNotes

Remember that yarn I bought last weekend? I was "just" going to do a gauge swatch (OK, to be honest my gauge swatches are more like "gauge strips"...I'm way too impatient!) I was so glad the shop lady suggested going down a needle size or two; the fabric is much prettier knit slightly tighter. ("Shop lady" sounds so formal, doesn't it? Like she had her hair up and was wearing heels.) But once I had swatched (stripped...no, wait a minute...) with the smaller needle, it seemed silly not to cast on right away, knowhutimean?

Anyway! Here is the unfortunately (IMO) named "Lolita" cast on, with a few inches done:

The yarn is beautifully NON-splitty, although it is also COMPLETELY non-stretchy, making the s2kp less than fun. But to make up for it, the pattern is simple and a dream to knit otherwise. It's only two rows, and the second is just purling! The repeat is fun, I only ever have to count to four, and then the purl row just ZOOOOOMS along after.

Don't expect a finish soon, though...I'm still plodding along on my Origami Turtle (latest progress pic, Ravelry page). I'm about 1/4 done with my first sleeve. I won't make the finish in a year (le sigh), but it'll be close.

JiffNotes
Hmm, since I hate the name "Lolita" so much, what should I call this thing? Hit me up in the comments with suggestions!

For more substantial WIPs, head to Tami's Amis!

Monday, April 9, 2012

The Geekend That Was, 4/8

Click now for JiffNotes

Let's start talking about the weekend with Saturday, shall we? Because Friday was my first mammogram ever, and let's just say there was screaming (really more like a yelp) and pain for the rest of the day (and most of Saturday). Yes, I am a big baby.

So! Saturday! After an epic Dance Central 2 workout (200 calories!! I can eat another icing-slathered sugar cookie!! This is what fitness is FOR!) I made a grocery list and gave myself an unfortunate pedicure while my fabulous husband ran to the grocery store. BEHOLD:
 
Schwunh? Here's my defense: I wanted bright pink toesies, but it turned out I didn't actually have any bright pink polish. So I went with a purple, but I hated it and covered it up with the only pink I had, a pale pink the approximate color of my skin. Bleah. Sparkles! I will add clear glitter on top...aaaaand...it is still not awesome! I KNOW, POLKA DOTS!

Yeah. It seemed like a good idea at the time. What's so notable about this whole episode is that NOT ONE PERSON in my family mentioned them. Not even one of those non-compliment exclamations like, "Well, look at your toes!" I am not sure if they did not notice (unlikely) or if my toes are just so horrific that they were embarrassed for me. (NOTE: I am not fishing for toenail compliments! They are unworthy!)

No one said anything at work, either...but I work with a bunch of boys, and they don't notice anything, do they?

We met friends for dinner and were going to have to head home early because I needed to chop vegetables for the next day (tight schedule...church then to my sister's, 40 minutes away, by 12:15!!). But our friends said, "We can help chop! Sounds like fun!" (They are unique and lovely people, for sure.) So we got everything chopped in like 15 minutes and then played Dance Central 2 for a while.

After a beautiful Easter service, where I managed to score us seats in the sanctuary instead of overflow because I was paying attention when the usher flashed two fingers, we dashed home and I made a blueberry, raspberry and peach crisp and cut up potatoes to add to the already chopped fennel, parsnips and Brussels sprouts. 30 minutes and a drizzle of olive oil later, I had this:
 
Purple potatoes!! Love it. Also, I've never had roasted fennel before...YUM. I don't think anyone in my family had ever had parsnips before!

It was a great day, topped by a lot of crazy ping-pong (table tennis, for the more civilized).

I did get a few minutes to work on Les Rubans...here's ribbon two in progress next to a completed ribbon one section:
 

Now if you'll excuse me, there are some Cadbury Creme Eggs calling me.

JiffNotes
Most random collection of pictures EVER.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Happy Easter! and a Treasure Hunt

Happy Easter all!

And welcome to those of you who are participating in Jo's Easter Treasure Hunt! (And for those of you that aren't...well, get to it! =)

C


I hope your Easter is Complete with family, Candy, Chocolate and exCeedingly gret joy in the resurrection!

So, can you C what letter you need for the hunt from here? =) Now proCeed on to Mel's blog at The Daily Mel for your next letter!


Thursday, April 5, 2012

WIPocalypse Check-in 4

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WIPocalypse

So with March Madness last month, I wasn't concentrating on any WIPocalypse projects, but some of them still came up. So I made a smattering of progress here and there...if you kept up with me during March Madness, these pictures are going to be a bit of a rerun. =)

A little bit of progress on Shakespeare's Garden:
 

I HAVE to finish Random Thoughts this year now:
I put a stake in the ground! Drew a line in the sand! Crossed the point of no return!
No frogging allowed!!!

I worked on the Origami Turtle; I'm done with the front sides, and I've started one of the sleeves!
This picture was obviously taken while the fronts were still in progress. I'm knitting the sleeves one at a time because it was a pain to knit the fronts both at once...too tangly. I have no problem knitting two socks at once...these were just too big. But it was nice to not have to write lots of notes about what I'd done on the Left so I could replicate it on the Right! I'm taking copious notes on the sleeve. In fact, I sat down and made myself a sleeve diagram earlier in the week so I wouldn't have to "think" anymore (at least about this sweater). =) At least I don't have to "reverse" the instructions like I had to do with the fronts! A sleeve is a sleeve!

Since Amazon April has started, I'm now done with ribbon #1 on Les Rubans Anciennes, and I'm working on ribbon #2!
Um, yeah, it doesn't look like much is done on the piece as a whole, but it's a lot of work!

I made a "little" progress on Keep a Little Secret:
Get it? "Little" because it's over-one, not very much progress, AND part of a project with "Little" in the title. What's better than double entendre?? TRIPLE ENTENDRE!!!

Urban Necessity Gloves got some love:
Done with the cuffs and starting on the thumb gusset (hence the stitch markers).

Finally, Eight-Pointed Star...
I thought I'd finished all the kloster blocks, but I missed a little section there. Oh, well. Soon I'll be on to the fun stuff.

JiffNotes
Visit Measi's blog to see more earth-shaking WIPocalypse posts by clicking the graphic at the top of this post!

Old Geek-outs