Knitting has stopped for a week.

I chained up the steeks for Regal, cut them, did the three needle bind off. Very pretty. Put on the collar. It seemed a little tight so I put it on to check that it would go over my head. While looking in the mirror, my eyes played games with me. Those strong diagonals weren't quite straight. What was going on?

OH NO - about mid way up the top section, there are mistakes!!! I offset the pattern a row, and the pattern lines are off. If you look really hard at last weeks picture, you can see.

I kicked myself for noticing this AFTER I cut the sweater.

I thought about throwing the whole thing out.
I thought about duplicate stitching the mistakes.
I thought about finishing it as is, and giving it to a shelter, because all I would ever see would be the mistake.
I let Shiloh sleep on it for four days, and thought about making it into a dog bed.
I thought more about duplicate stitching the mistakes.

urg.

Like many, I've been really disappointed by the knitting magazines recently. I'm planning on letting all of my subscriptions lapse. I certainly have plenty of books and magazines already. Maybe my past excesses are leading the to feeling that what has been published recently has already been done before.

Today, I shout out to the editors of Vogue Knit.1 - you guys have nailed your target market.

On Saturday, my daughter and I went to the park to see some dancing demonstrations, and to score free ballet tickets. I wanted some double points, so I took her out to the LYS after. I try to use these trips, once or twice a year to interest her in knitting, and to get insight on what she may like me to make for her. We found some fun hats, and picked up a pattern and some yarn, Then she picked up a Vogue Knitting 1.0. Imagine my surprise to find her excited by the magazine. She loved the format, the articles, and thought that many of the projects were really cool. She sat down in the store and just bubbled to the knitting ladies who happened to be there just how great it was to find a book with projects and formats targetedfor her age group. ((instead of for fat old ladies like us ??)) Apparently the magazine is not my demographic, since I can barely stand it. We came home with two issues.

Later, Saturday night, waiting for the ballet to start, you would have seen us both knitting. She was working on an ear flap hat in chartreuse and black. I was working on my big Regal sweater. She is now 4 1/2 inches from cast on, and ready for the decrease rounds. I'm done with the body, and doing the fiddly work to prepare steeks for cutting.

Giselle was lovely by the way.

I've been enjoying how quickly this Regal/Candide project is working up. Shilo appears to enjoy when I set it down. This annoys me, because he's shedding, and the sweater ends up full of dog hair. I'm 2/3 of the way up the armhole section, quickly approaching the neck opening.

I started up on the second sleeve for the Fasset circle square. Not much there yet; I've made a few increases, and stopped because I need to go pull yarns for the next row of colors. As noted before there are three places where half the colors change, and one place, every 24 rows where they all change. Getting set up for that big one seems to stall me out.

Speaking of stalled, I'm not sure that the Kaffe Fasset knit along I tried to join is active. I'd really like to see some support around my project in particular and the multicolor style that Fasset represents in general. So, I thought about hosting one of those group blogs. I thought about it so hard, I even named it, and roughed it out on blogger. It's open for review, but pretty lame without members. Check it out, and see what you think. Fans of Kaffe Fasset Knitting, or http://fokafak.blogspot.com/

I'll mention this a few times, and leave it up for a few months. If it catches on, great. If not, my husband will still have his sweater by the time it cools down in Houston.

How could I forget again?

Blog birthday came and went last week. Happy Happy.

Worked some on the Regal project; didn't work on the Fasset. No pictures because I'm feeling cranky.

Did I mention that I decided what to do with the Briggs and Little that I had the desire to "use up"?

I looked up Briggs and Little, and I think the color that I have and don't really care for is called copper. I also inspected the green skeins a bit better, and found that some was B&L and some was labeled Candide. Reynolds Candide, I guess; it's a bit bulkier, but not so much that it can't peacefully fair isle together with the B&L Regal.

The green Candide and green Regal must have been same mill, same dye lot because, I have switched between the two types, and can't for the life of me find any lines, even in bright daylight. They also have the same feel; the wool feels a bit rough, and has bits in it. I know from my swatch that it softens up nicely after a bath. There is also a bit of an oily feel, that makes me think there is a bit of lanolin still in there. In any event, both types of green feel the same way.

The chevrons are running down the side, and will extend down the sleeve. This will be one of those Meg Swanson constructs, where I will pick up the sleeves in pattern and extend it down, and the chevrons will follow. I didn't realize how they appear to "float" when you get away from the pattern. Nice.

I'm about an inch from the armhole steek, and I'm freaking out. I'm still on the first skein of the copper color. Not only do I have PLENTY of this color, I think I may have over a skein left over.

Well, we have a sleeve. I'm pleased with the entire look, and the measurements seemed to come out about right. I'll probably start the second one this week. A shot of the back side for those who need to see such things. Probably the most aggressive bit of intarsia I've ever done.



The wrist edge is curly, because I've not yet decided on the edge treatment. Probably some sort of striped ribbing, but for now, its sitting on an crocheted provisional cast on.

Cheers