Yarn Miracle has been experiencing some technical difficulties: for about 24 hours there, my mail went somewhere other than to me. M offers his appologies. He has explained to me that it is “just gone” and there’s nothing to be done. My response was “huh.” So, if you haven’t heard back from me regarding your very kind comments, that’s why. After this, I am going to find everyone through the comments page and respond personally (that’s the plan anyway).* In the meantime, thanks to everyone who gave me feedback on YM’s condition in other browsers, I really appreciate it!

The left front of the Inferior Cardigan is finished:

The Perfect Cardigan is the one on the right, which places the Inferior Cardigan on the left.

It’s almost creepy how well this is coming out. Perhaps the Inferior Cardigan is the Perfect Cardigan’s evil twin…or perhaps Great Gran really did just follow one pattern (instead of mix and matching) after all. The world may never know.

I’ve gone on ahead and blocked the sleeves. I have limited blocking space and it’s so much easier to seam things when the edges aren’t curly. Here is a fun extra: the Inferior Button Bands are knit along with the rest of the cardi. They are 11 stitches long, but you slip the middle stitch on the RS to make a “fold line.” You’re supposed to sew the outside edge of the band to the inside edge to make a thicker for the buttons. Pretty nifty.

Bloomin’ Update: Emily has made 24 rows of pattern!

It would have been 32 rows, except I managed to Misplace a stitch. The funny thing is, when I backed up to the offending stitch, my count STILL wasn’t right. I had to tink back to the ribbing before it was right again. I never did figure out where that stitch went.** When I started over, I elected to work in a Cat Free Zone with no distractions. Things have been going much better.

*We are looking at other blog software (MovableType didn’t have anything to do with my missing email, that was all M). My requirements are few: some sort of “are you human” check on the comments and let people with gmail and hotmail addys post a comment (for crying out loud already). Also I like “lightbox” a whole bunch so I want that instead of having to make pop-ups.

**Perhaps it went the way of my email.

As you can see, we dressed up the blog a bit. I’ve only seen the finished product in Safari and Firefox, so if anyone has any technical troubles (things don’t seem to be where they ought to be etc.) please comment or email me. Thanks a bunch.

PS Personalized yarn bands are a hoot to make!

The back of the Inferior Cardigan is finished. I don’t have a picture. It looks just like the Inferior Sleeves only wider. I do have a picture of the left front. Please do not mock my wonky ribbing.*

The Superior Cardigan is on the left. The Inferior Cardigan is on the right.

Exciting things happen on the front! I should be at the armholes in no time.

My other projects are not going so well.

The night before last, I was ready to cast on the first of the Bloomin’ Socks. First, I had to ball the yarn. I don’t have a ball winder** and M has a short attention span, so I put the hank around the back of the rocking chair and started to wind. As soon as I made it clear to the cats that I was Not Playing, everything went swimmingly. Then I noticed that an Upsetting Tangeling Thing was happening. It was like the guy winding the ball at the mill took the yarn off the winder, put it on backwards, and finished the job. M tried to help. The spaghetti mess rapidly became worse.*** I sat on the couch trying not to cry and undoing the tiny, tiny knots. By the time I had finished, I was in no mood to try an overly complicated cast on.

It is now a day later and I have cast on in the overly complicated manner THREE times. Each time I asked: “Why am I doing this when I could just knit one on/purl one on? Why does the designer want people to cry? The pictures would be a lot less complex if they just did it the easy way.” For my fourth and final attempt, I did it my way and you can’t tell the difference.

Emily Ivey, casting on as she sees fit since 2001. So there.

In my stash, I have enough actual sock yarn for eight pairs of socks. This does not count the sack of Wool-Ease and other yarns that can also be used to make socks. And yet, I have ordered yarn for three more pairs.

On the left, we have some Regia from Simply Socks. It was ON SALE. The Red is for the Red Hot Socks knit-a-long. On the right, we have M’s very favorite sock yarn of all time: Brown Sheep’s Wildefoot (Elderberry). I got this because I didn’t want to pay a ton of shipping for just a pattern. It does NOT cost $4.25 to mail two pieces of paper.

From the sock yarn I already have, I’ve started a new TakeItWithMe project: Fluted Banister Socks in some kind of Kroy. I really like this pattern and the color will be great for M. I’ve added 5 extra stitches to the leg to make it a little bigger, but I think I will loose them when I get to the foot.

Take a good look. You won’t see them again ’til they are finished. Months from now.

I have not forgotten about the bedspread! It is still a very active project. I won Rowan #33 on ebay which has a baby blanket that is really similar to the bedspread patterns, but the squares are bigger. Janet pointed this out to me in the comments and bless her for that! Maybe it won’t take six years after all.

*I don’t know what’s up with that but it blocks out nicely so I have decided not to worry about it. I imagine it has something to do with my loose purls.

**For the record, I don’t have a ball winder because a Certain Someone called me “lazy” when I said I wanted to spend $40 to get one. The same Certain Someone looked at me as I wound and wound last night and said, “Don’t they make something that can do that for you?” My memory is hazy at this point, but I believe I called him a Bad Name.

***Only ONE person should be trying to untangle at a time. ONE PERSON.

I finished those green striped socks that I started a billion years ago.

I don’t count socks in the Only Two Active Projects Allowed at a Time rule because I almost always working on a pair. They are such nice, small projects to take in the car or to meetings or to Great Gran’s house. They don’t take a whole lot of concentration (unless they are paticularly elaborate or one is grafting) so I can talk/listen/observe and knit at the same time. I finished these yesterday at the Farm when I went over to hang out. Great Gran was saying that she just didn’t really have anything new to make (she is waiting on a pattern and yarn order) and wants to use up all her worsted yarn. I pulled up Knitty on the computer and showed her Coronet. She got started right away.

This morning she called to see if I wanted to run errands with her. When I hopped in the passenger seat, I found the finished band and some needles. She didn’t want my company – she just wanted me to pick up the stitches for the crown!

This last bit is for Becky who wants to see our favorite non-handknit socks. Here are mine:

The monkeys on the left are the runners up.

Last Christmas, both my Mom and Aunt Sandy gave me a pair of these! They are covered in Angus Dogs and I love them. They are also covered in cat hair, but hopefully you won’t notice that.