etc.

Top Secret perches on the couch. a modelled shot to-morrow, perhaps.

recent additions to the knit library.
must. stop. buying. knitting. books.

I’ve reverted to bad habits lately, and paid the price for it in spades, I’d say. Yes, spades. I went back to using IE a few weeks ago and have therefore spent the past three days rescuing my computer from spyware purgatory. There is still some sort of slithy registry key that has attached itself to IE that I can’t seem to get rid of (which changes my homepage everytime I launch the browser) and several days of diagnostics hasn’t helped at all. So back to Firefox while I work it out and lick my wounds.

I’m almost done on the sweater I started last week (just the 3-needle bind-off to go, happy thoughts my way, please) and I have to say that I’m positively head-over-ears for this pattern. I can’t say enough good things about a pattern that produces an almost-complete sweater right at bind-off, with only 20 stitches to seam and 3 ends to weave in. Genius!

Pictures soon (although nothing near Melanie’s superlative cliff shot), but in the meantime, here’s a picture of a cat who sleeps cute.

…and so, a simpler knit. a project for which I have more than enough yarn. about 5 inches more and then onto the sleeves.

…so I worked on a sleeve. but wait! look at that narrow cuff!

it was at this point that knitters’ panic began to seethe beneath the surface…

Perhaps it’s time I told you about this week’s knitting highs & lows.

You might recall that some months ago, I bought a couple of hanks of beautifully variegated Fleece Artist yarn and that I made plans for it and fawned over it and photographed it until I was blue in the face. Then I started knitting Jen’s Poncho from Sally Melville’s The Knit Stitch out of this yarn only to realize, about half way into the second rectangular panel, that I would not have enough yarn to complete it. So I pulled it all out and re-wound all four balls and set out to make the afghan I originally intended the yarn for, only to realize, about two hours and two rows later, that I would not have the patience to proceed at that ridiculous pace, and that the yarn was too luscious to make a simple throw out of and that I’d much rather wear it than toss it over a sofa, thanks very much. So I found a pattern for a nice little cardi a couple of weeks ago and reworked the pattern for full-length sleeves, with the help of the yarn store staff, and went on my way with a big, dumb grin on my face, and renewed fervour for the beautifully variegated yarn that I hadn’t been able to forget was ziploc bagged and ready for a new purpose in life.

This past Monday, I casted on for the cardi and work progressed quite nicely in the lovely waffle pattern that made the subtle variegation in the yarn just pop. Then I got to the end of the first ball. And I was only about half way done the back. And then, the panic. I hastily laid the back aside and cast on for a sleeve hoping that if I could knock off both sleeves from one ball of yarn, that maybe — maybe — I’d be okay. But the pattern was reworked for full-length sleeves, and there was no way one ball would net two full-length sleeves, so in one last Herculean attempt to salvage what I could I decided on 3/4 length sleeves (much as I hate them), but wait, oh no, I had already cast on for full-length sleeves so the cuff would be too tight for a shorter sleeve, but by that point it was already too late — I was well into the sleeve cap shaping so I’d have to ripthewholethingoutandstartover and then, right there, I hit the rockiest rock-bottom of my short tenure as a knitter. I might have screamed, if I was the screaming type.

Instead, I packed the beast away and began a project that calls itself “a perfect project for the beginner” knit with yarn that is good and cheap, and readily available if I run out, and it’s going quite well, thanks for asking, and I think I’m recovering, praise Jesu!