Ka-CHOW

She is finished! The hourglass is finished(I know, a wool sweater in summer? I must be nuts.) and I couldn't be happier. Well, I could, maybe with a large bar of real belgian chocolate and maybe sitting on a beach somewhere watching money fall into my lap and his royal braininess running around with no shirt on serving me drinks and... *sigh*

The hourglass. Right.

So... yeah. I must say, I now understand all the gushing about this sweater...it just FITS. I LOVE it. Really quite sad it's not snowing out, to be honest, because I can't wait to wear this sweater... maybe a visit home to Alaska is in order? To like, Barrow or scenic Deadhorse? Urgh.

To try to show you a better picture of the color....
isn't it just divine?

Pattern: Hourglass Sweater from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson.
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash in color 863
Needles: Knitpicks Options, size 5 circular
Mods: Seed stitch borders for sleeves, neck, and waist. I also added 5 decrease rows at the neck.

I am so totally making this sweater again... in a nice summery cotton this time. :D

bummer

Progress is a double edged... something or other. Loads of progress on the hourglass... actually, I'm about finished except for the yoke and the seaming. But LOOK:

The shoulder seams are so totally WAY too shallow. I'm going to have to rip all this and decrease every row instead of every other row. Or maybe I can decrease two rows in a row and then do one straight. *sigh*

Any thoughts? Suggestions? Help?

Schmoo.

Baillie loved her pink Monica. She wanted to put it on right away. So we did. And then she wanted to tell the flowers all about her new shirt...

One of the many reasons I love kids.

My sister lives just up the street with her husband, two kids, dog, cat, and fish. More often than not, my husband and I will go up the street to hang out, watch the kids, help with yardwork, etc. So we're up the street, my husband helping with the planting of trees (apparently a three person job) and so I'm watching the kids as they play with their friends.

First we play tag. Mind you, these are 3-6 year olds, so tag involves one person being it and everyone else chasing the "it" person. All of the sudden, I'm "it", and a bunch of screaming 3-6 year olds come hurtling at me and knock me down. Half kidding, I say... "Uh, okay... instead of chasing Auntie, why don't you all go run in circles around the tree a bunch of times!"

So what do they do? They all scream "YEAH!!!!" and go running circles around the tree until they fall down.

I laughed so hard I almost peed myself.

Pink with some frilly bits!

Yesterday afternoon, as my dog and my husband were snoring discordantly on the music room floor, I was knitting happily away at my wool hourglass sweater when I thought... "wait a minute. why the heck am I knitting a WOOL sweater at the beginning of the summer?"

In view of this sudden consideration, I went and got out my Orangina stash yarn (more wool, but it's lace wool and it's part silk, so it's okay) and started knitting Orangina on my size 3 circulars. You know what? I *SUCK* at knitting on size 3 circulars. Four rows in and I had so many mistakes that I had to frog the whole thing. Booooooo. I will have to borrow the size 3 straights from Nana. For now? Back to the wool sleeve.

Today I saw this on someone else's blog and decided I had to knit it. So I busted out my size 6 needles and the frogged pink yarn, and knit this bad girl up. Yes, yes, I know. I would look silly in this... it's for my neice! Only 18 months and she already luuuuuuvs pink frilly things. And stuffed animals, and kitties, and any sort of jewelry. For Christmas I knit her a little purse with a pair of play keys and a toy phone in it.... you should have seen her carrying this thing around. She'd hand me my purse and then gather up her purse and away we'd go!

I've already got the front all knit up... I just have to finish this backside and get some contrasting color cotton to make the frills and I'm done! Such a quick knit! I'll post pics of the neice modelling it as soon as it's done... next I'll have to figure out how to fair isle spiderman for the nephew.... Anybody know of some good spidey patterns out there? :D

The problem with having relatives who knit....

...is that they always want to borrow your needles. Consequently, when you reach that stage where you need your size 5 circulars, it's likely that your sister has borrowed them. If you're sneaky like me, however, you bust out the backup double points. :D

Rachmani-thoven

Progress is being made. I PROMISE.

BWAAAHAHHAAAA! I PROMISE. I will NEVER DIE.

You probably all think I'm nuts. But if you've seen Team America, you got it.

But anyway, lookit!
The more I knit with this stuff, the more I love the color. It's the Cascade 220 superwash... in... a brown color... and ... crap. I can't remember the name. But I love it. And I will post it. I promise. AAAHAHAHAAAAA. I PROMISE.

I'm a bit slap happy after my day. It's what we call a small dog warning day here in Colorado, with winds blustering up to 60-70 mph. Rode my bike to work sideways. Rode home from work sideways the other way. Went upstairs to my sheet music scattered to all four corners of the music room. I tried to play a Rachmaninoff prelude, only to end up in the middle of Pathetique. Boooooooooo. So I spent an hour trying to sort out Clementi and Bach and Beethoven and Rachmaninoff and whatever the hell else I had on my piano stand/floor. Then I gave up and knit while we watched the Ducks win the Stanley cup and Grace Jones in Conan the Destroyer. I love her in that movie. She's nuts.

How's that for an evening?