Haiti’s pretty shell stuff is finished (which was fun - I love lacy stitches) and I am now involved in the miles of mind-numbing stockinette.

I’ve never made a sweater all in one piece, it feels like it is moving much more quickly than other projects. Maybe it’s knowing that there isn’t another section after this one. Maybe it’s because it’s a tank and those tend to go fast fast. Maybe it’s the cute, pink circular needle. Or the sack of Cream Savers that I have consumed to keep me interested in knitting around and around and around.

Or it could be the yarn iteslf. Now, splitty is not usually a quality I look for in a yarn. In fact I have sworn to never knit with Wildflower again because it’s so Disfunctional that way. But somehow, the other outstanding qualities of this stuff makes watching for splits worth it. Svale is soft and knits up with a fabulous drape that has a little shimmer to it. I am not saying it’s easy staying alert for offenders, I’m just saying the overall effect of the yarn may be worth it to you.

In other news. This is what Angus has been up to lately.

Mr. Pitiful

Can you see his red nose? Some of that is allergy and some is from burying chewies in his bed to hide them from the cat. I try to tell him that Betty doesn’t want his chewies, but the mucus has made him a little paranoid. Also, he is not sleeping very well. I know this because he stands by the side of my bed and pants on me until I wake up and pet him. We have dosed him with Benadryl so he should be sound alseep and breathing easier in about 20 minutes.

PS Can you keep a secret? Here is a split that I am not going back to fix. I noticed it way too late and you can’t see it from the front. I’m just going to pretend that it is my humility block.

The S4 is dry in a mere three days instead of the estimated three years! And in this humidity, too. Amazing.

Dig the tree? That is actually a Chinese Privet Hedge that has grown to Epic Proportions. For more information, please visit NRCS.

Michael liked the new camera so much, he took a whole bunch of pictures of me! Some were blurry (he hasn’t gotten the knack of focusing yet) but here are a couple more good ones that show off the sweater.

To the left, we have me posing like the girl in the pattern picture (stomach covered). And to the right we have a close up of the sleeve seam. I can’t wait to wear it in public!

Next, on Yarn Miracle:
Emily starts Haiti and copes with a Very Splitty Yarn.

Mom has been visiting this week and Great Gran talked us all into running down to Mary Esther to spend the night. Our little vacation gave me time to turn this:

Into this:

And it only took two hours! I really like to seam things up. Now the S4 is blocking on the bedroom floor. Yes, I seamed before I blocked. I usually do it the other way around: block, then seam, then steam the seams into flatness. But because I wasn’t at home, I took a chance. I predict that it will take the next three years to dry but other than that, things will be OK. In the meantime, I will swatch for Haiti.

Just as an aside:
You shouldn’t publish a knitting pattern that requires crochet skills to finish. That’s just misleading. And hard for those of us who don’t really understand how to tie knots with one stick instead of two. Luckily, I have a grandmother who does…

The Yarn Fairy brought my sale yarn!

mmmm wooly

On the left, we have Classic Elite’s Gatsby in “Chai Latte.” There are eight hanks of it for the Gatsby Pullover in the Spring 2003 Interweave. On the right, in the “Ella” colorway, we have Artful Yarn’s Jazz. Four hanks will make the On the Go Vest from Knitters Magazine (Winter 2001) for Michael. These are so obviously winter projects. If I made them now we wouldn’t get to wear them for months. Just looking at the yarn makes me feel hot and itchy. My brain knows this, but my fingers want to swatch!

Last night, with some help from a cup of Golden Monkey tea that Mark left behind, I stayed up until 11:30 and finished the back!

Don’t laugh - anything past 9pm is late for me!

I’ve only done one row on the front, but I am sure that I can make some pretty good progress tonight.

I have a Confession to make. I wasn’t going to buy any more yarn for a while. Especially yarn that wasn’t for spring things. But there is this sale at Webs…I wasn’t even going to go over and look because the temptation would just be too great. Then I thought, “Well, they probably don’t have anything I want anyway so it wouldn’t hurt to window shop.”

So I took a peek.

It turned out that two yarns I have been really lusting to try but had written off as Too Expensive were both Very Reduced. That’s right, I expect the Yarn Fairy any day with Jazz for a vest for M and Gatsby for a sweater for me. I am feeling very ashamed about my lack of control. But I just keep reminding myself that sales like these don’t happen very often and you just have to jump on them when they do. Yeah. That’s the ticket.

When you get to row 22 in the second pattern repetition, something exciting happens!

ARMHOLES!

I think this might be my favorite gauge, too. Just a nice relaxing knit. I should be finished by now, but with all of the company we’re having lately, there isn’t a whole lot of time left over from knitting.

We had a nice time with Michael’s dad and discovered a new restaurant: Ed’s Seafood Shed. Their food is decidedly better than their website. But there is a picture if you scroll far enough. His mom, sister and brother and sister are here now. They will be visiting until Saturday.

I have two other exciting things to report:

Yarn Fairy!

This is the yarn to make Haiti (that nifty shell with the scalloped edging). So I have my next project all picked out and ready.

AND I have a new digital camera! Great Gran got it for us for Easter. It is very cool. No more getting out the digital video camera, rewinding, taking stills, importing them into iMovie, saving frames, importing those into iPhoto and then editing. You just plug in the camera and it opens iPhoto. And it takes a very nice picture as you can see in this gratuitous azalea picture.