Restless Knitter

Extra yarn arrived, shawl finished.  Finally.

It’s still too short for my tastes so I’ll likely never use it.  I don’t have time to do it now, but I’ll add the specs here and to Ravelry when I get back from my visit to Small Town.

I tried and tried to knit the baby sweater out of scraps.  If you counted all the swatches I made you could say I’ve knit this little thing twice.  Especially considering that when I got to the second side, I realized that I left out a repeat on the first side.  Or so I thought, now I’m not so sure.  Being as I haven’t actually ripped that one out yet, I’ll go back and verify if I did or didn’t leave out a repeat.  But, because I had to order more KnitPicks, I also ordered some yarn to make the little sweater in a solid color.  It only took a couple of days and I finished it before I tackled the bind off on the shawl.

The ties aren’t on it yet.  I’m taking it with me to Small Town tomorrow to see if daughter wants a loop and button, or the ties that are in the pattern.  I do plan to make this again, only I’ll use the multiple colors.

I need your help.  Tell me which picture best shows the shawl on your monitor.  On one computer, one looks better.  On the laptop, the other one looks better.

I thought I’d at least try to fix the hole in the Maltese shawl. I could tell before I even got into it that it was going to be more trouble than it was worth so rip it went. I’m still being rebellious and not using a lifeline (aka I am a dumbass). Eighteen repeats in, so far so good.

Hey, here’s something you don’t see everyday. Every other day, maybe.

I don’t know if I’ll ever get tired of this pattern. I really like the way it looks with multi-colored yarns. It’s perfect for car knitting, which is where this one came to be.

To keep from getting burnout on the shawl, I started a baby cardigan. Ahh baby knitting. It doesn’t have to be exact, within reason. It will fit some baby eventually. If only knitting a sweater for me were so flexible. Though I’m not sure I like the idea of thinking I’ll grow into something. This will be the Cabled Cardigan from the Knitting For Babies: Blankets, Booties, Bibs & More booklet. I was moving right along on this. Both sleeves and the back are done. The fronts are too. And then…

Seriously, why! You may have to click for bigger to see it but it’s still quite glaring for me. Why did I miss that one cable? Why didn’t I notice before I finished the whole front? Both fronts really, since I knit them at the same time. I’m not going to rip the whole thing out but I will have to rip down to the neck shaping. I will fix it while I contemplate only knitting garterstitch squares for the rest of my knitting life.

Daughter has gone home, making me very sad face. We had fun though. We went to Venice Beach to people watch, and while later watching Dancing With The Stars, saw the same man in gold that we saw at Venice. (Dudes, some of you do NOT need to be walking around in nothing but a speedo, yuck.) We also went to the the LA Fashion District. I’m not a big shopper (unless it’s yarn) and didn’t find anything for me, but I plan on going back when I have more time.

After picking up Daughter at the airport and arriving home, we took her out to show her where the rattlesnake had been. The little bugger was back. Unfortunately for him, The Man was home and the snake lost his head. Last night, a gopher snake decided under the deck would be a good place to get away from a barking dog. Once we got the dog in, he made his way over to the side yard. This one was probably 4 ft long. I have to tell you, I’m not too fond of all these snakes in and behind my yard.

Oh yeah, knitting. There has been some of that going on. I was searching for who-knows-what and came across something that was double-knit. The original search long forgotten, I moved on to looking for charts I could use and came up with this.

It’s a hotpad/potholder/dishcloth, I haven’t really decided yet. I used Sugar ‘n Creme, on a US 7. I’d played around with this before but had never actually made something. My original thought was a baby blanket I dreamed up in my head. After doing this small piece, I’m having second thoughts on the blanket. I enjoyed knitting this one but I’m not so sure I’d enjoy a full blown blanket. I’d also need to treat the edges differently. Sloppy is ok for this but not for a blankie. Oh, and speaking of baby blankets, I’m going to be a Nana again.

From some leftover Jaggerspun Zephyr

I picked an easy pattern out of a stitch dictionary and knit until I ran out of yarn. It was a partial ball so I can’t tell you how much I used.

After I finished the scarf, I started The Maltese Shawl from Victorian Lace Today (page 162) using the Misti Alpaca Lace yarn I got while in San Fran.

Oops, do you see what I see? There’s a hole. Yes, I know there are a lot of holes, however there’s one that is bigger than the others. It’s not supposed to be. It looks like when I did a k2tog, I missed one of the yo’s that was supposed to be in that k2tog. No one would probably ever notice but me, but it’ll drive me batshit crazy that it’s there. Because there’s lace knitting on both sides, I’m not so sure I can fix it. Should I attempt to fix it? Leave it? Rip since I’m not that far in? Attempt to fix it then get pissed that I couldn’t fix it and rip it? It goes in time-out until I can decide.

I tried another new thing to me, I’m on a roll!

I’m a little disappointed in the picture. When you are looking at the piece straight on, you can’t see the design at all. No matter what angle I moved the camera to, it still slightly shows the pattern.

I know it’s dark but it was really the best pic to show the design. I intended this to be a dishcloth but it came out a little long, making it look not so much like a dishcloth and more like a small place-mat. I’m still calling it an FO.

The other new-to-me thing I tried was the slip-stitch/mosaic knitting. Both of these techniques are fun and I can see them being very useful for some stash busting. I have a lot of one skeiners around here that could be used, even if it is just to make scarves.

Instead of trying to surprise the daughter with a design, I told her what I wanted to do and asked her if there were any patterns that she didn’t want showing up in the shadow knitting. Dog paws were out. She’d feel like a little kid, she said. Me, I’d wear dog paws, because I’m 5. Stars are okay so I’m on the hunt for a good star chart.