A Good Start.

Hello Blog!

First, since I know you'll ask; I did not finish Treads yesterday. I'm really close though!

Yesterday, was a bad day for me. I mean, a screaming, shouting, cursing, crying bad day. I know, but it's OK because after it was all over, I went to my friend's house and we went to AC Moore. AC Moore is where all of the pretty, cheap, acrylic yarn lives, and not to dis Michael's at all, but this particular AC Moore has the most amazing selection of brands and colors. It's nothing short of epic.

Suddenly, without really meaning to I had agreed to starting a knit-a-long. A Knit-a-long for a sweater. A SWEATER. There is nothing better for boosting morale, self-esteem, and delusions of grandeur than going to buy yarn with a fellow enabler. ( I might be her dealer but she's just as bad for me as I am for her, and that's the story I'm sticking to.)

What sweater you might ask? Why none-other than the simple and elegant $5 in Paris that has been high up in my queue for a good long time now. I love this sweater, it's really a classic, fitted look and it does stripes in a way that actually looks nice....

I don't want anything to go wrong with this project. I want this sweater to be a roaring success, I want it to fit properly, I want to be able to wear it out in public - or to work - without feeling embarrassed, or regretting some fault or another with the sweater that only I can see. To that end, today I am swatching. Serious swatching. It may be true that swatches lie, but I will swatch the living daylights out of this yarn until it tells me what I want to know.

Gauge is supposed to be 5 stitches to an inch.

on size 9 needles; unblocked 4 1/2 stitches, blocked 3 3/4 stitches

on size 8 needles; unblocked 5 stiches, blocked 4 stitches

on size 7 needles; unblocked 5 stitches, blocked 4 1/2 stitches

Regardless of what needle size I go with for the body, I plan on going down a size smaller for the ribbing. I do not want the neck of this thing draping off of my shoulders!

'Cheers,

Theo

Lateral braid

Hello blog!

I had a great day today, lined up two job interviews before lunch, not to mention casting on a new project and learning a new knitting technique!

Cast on Treads, using the Bernat silky I got on my last yarn crawl. lol. Originally thought I'd knit another Laural, but the yarn is way too loose for that. These mittens are way awesome though ^__^

Check out the Lateral braids :

They look impressive and pretty but they're actually very easy. I was surprised, and delighted. I want to add braids into all of my knitting now!

Hmmm. I cast on this morning and finished before bed. Watching more vampire tv! Being Human, to be exact, from the BBC! Its much better than the watery show The Gates I've been watching.

Will I have a finished set by Thursday? Tune in next time to find out!

Stitch Counts.

Hello Blog,

I appoligize in advance for the rather longish length of this post. I have to rant to you about how much I really, truly dislike my swallowtail right now. But first, something a bit happier.

Progress on the Cursed Scarf:

Not even halfway done with the scarf. Hurray!

And, look what I can do now...

New skill achieved!

I have been given crochet lessons by several different friends in the past, and attempted to teach myself, but it's been slow going for me. Last night I had yet another lesson and met some well-earned success ^_^ Now I just need to learn the names of the stitches I've just made, and how to read those confusing crochet patterns, and I'll be good to go!

And now, swallowtail.

Let me explain what happened. I was supposed to do 14 repeats of chart 2 and end up with 195 stitches, but instead I ended up with 208. Not noticing I started chart three and found that I had 6 stitches left over at the end of the row. I ripped back to the end of chart 2, thought about the merits of ripping an additional 6 rows or enlarging the shawl, and decided to keep going until I reached 255 stitches before starting chart 3.

Right now, I only have 218 stitches. HOWEVER. I feel like I have a problem. Deep deep in my bones I know there's a problem. I have an even number of stitches and yet I'm not coming up with too many or two few stitches at the end of each row, despite the fact that the pattern - and every note that I've read on ravelry - tells me that I need an odd number of stitches. I can't find a flaw in my knitting anywhere, but the numbers don't add up, I don't want to keep knitting only to have to rip back again, but what else can I do? I'm struggling to find an answer - one that I'm sure will be very simple and obvious - but until I do figure it out. I hate my knitting.

Until next time

Theo