Happy Memorial Day.

It's rained the whole weekend here in H-town, and is muggy as well. We've been able to do some bicycling in between the showers, and I've been enjoying the long weekend by sleeping a lot, and trying to put some projects on the "finished" list. Mixed results.

Confession.

The Mothers Day sale at the LYS was too tempting. I mentioned it to my husband, the great enabler, and he packed me up, and drove me over. Lots of pretty novelty yarn, the kind I said I would never buy again on sale 40% off. Some jumped into a basket. I was planning on dear husband to make the purchase, so I could rationalize it off as a gift. But I walked up to the counter myself, and did it.

So, I suppose that I need to use it all up before the end of the year. The goal is to end you year with a measurable amount of stash reduction.

So, here is the start.

Two skeins of Waikiki, in a blue/teal/purple colorway that reminded me of my Sister in Law. It is nasty stuff to figure out. Not only is it a multicolor, but it has hunks or wads that are thicker to add more interest. I tried a lot of stitch patterns, and ended up with this garter lace pattern, that I sort of made up. All done, and ready to be mailed.

I'm working on some Lang Venzia now.

Now for Hardangervidda. The sleeves are attached, and the insides are cleaned up. I need to tack down the armhole facing, and hems, the add the neck.

Almost done.

Except

I had the intended try it on.

It's too short.

I'm going to have to do that snip, and knit another two inches and graft it together thing before I can call this one finished.

And E.D. is still waiting to be cleaned up.

I so wanted to post that I had the red Hardangervidda off the needles last Thursday, but it wasn't. There have been other accomplishments, however. Our new little boat is sailing. My husband and I are certified to use enriched air while SCUBA diving. My daughter has had braces installed. The dog has been to the vet. Yes, I still work most of the day, and I'm doing a lot of internal presentations, which has generated more work, which is good, but limits knitting. I had a near disaster on Friday, spilling a drink on my laptop. The keyboard went wonky, and I recovered somewhat by finding an older keyboard from a previous personal computer. I also spritzed and paper toweled the damaged keyboard, and the laptop keyboard may be back in working order. Hurrah for me.

I also find that I am looking too much at my page stats again. I made this blog for myself, and I keep telling myself that it really doesn't matter if I have 2 hits, or 20 hits per day. I should just stop looking. I did for a while, and was a lot happier.

But, this is a knitting blog, and back to Hardangervidda. The project had moved so quickly through the boring center section, and the delicious yoke pattern. Then, the last bit of block rib seemed to take forever. It didn't help that the neck placement didn't please me. My husband likes necks that fit closely, and this one looked way too big. Then, the section for the armholes looked small. I set a steek at the beginning of the yoke pattern, because I don't trust my sewing machine skills at all. Thus, I had to keep working until I had enough armhole. Not a problem, it only took two extra sets of block rib. As far as ending dimensions, this is fine as well. My husband has a long torso, so the extra inch in the body will be just fine.

I'm getting tired of this project, now that it is so near to completion. Lots of fiddly finishing work to do, and I still have all the ends to work in for the Elegant Diagonals sweater. I need some quality time with a good audio book, a thunderstorm, a tapestry needle, and scissors.

Happy Blog Anniversary to Swatchy.

Enough of that.

Observant reader Elizabeth has correctly identifying the mystery sweater as Fern. Way to go Elizabeth, and thanks for leaving a comment. Now I know they work. Elizabeth, if you wish to foward your address to my email ( see side bar ) I will send you a present.

Last Thursday, I posted, then took off to have a molar extracted. Yuck. This was the result of a root canal gone very bad. I was fortunate about not being in pain, and not having to do this in an emergency situation. Now, I have about a year of bone growth, and implant baloney before I can get a crown in the spot where that tooth used to be.

My dear husband kept me iced and down on Thursday, waking me up to give me more Demerol. Friday, I was on my own, but very very stupid. It took me maybe two hours to set up the pattern section for the yoke of Hardangervidda. But once it was started, whoopee, what fun. So much fun, that a week later, I find myself done with the complex pattern section, and at the neck decreases.

I have made some more pattern changes. I'm not big on the neck zipper, so I'm going to make a regular neck. I'm planning to knit the little diamond pattern around the neck, then make a turning row, and tacking it down on the back, rather than rib. While examining the pattern, I noticed there was a slight difference between the front and back yoke pattern, and I liked the back pattern better. Thus it is on the front as well.

GingGong is not impressed.