Knitting and Ripping

I've knit a few rows and ripped a few rows but I think I'm making a little headway. I knit a while last night then found a mistake and had to rip out about 6 rows. I'm thinking about putting in a lifeline. Those of you familiar with lace knitting will know what I mean. For those who aren't, a lifeline is a thin thread put through all the stitches on a particular row when you're sure what you have knitted is correct. The purpose is to be able to rip back to the lifeline if necessary and not have to worry about dropping any stitches. I use crochet cotton and a darning needle and go through all the stitches on my needles and let the ends hang loose. I may do this if I keep making stupid mistakes.

KUI (Knitting Under the Influence)

Here's the first photo of my progress on the sweater. The color is actually a bit darker. As you can see, I'm not breaking any speed records but I am enjoying it very much. It's quite a change from all the socks I've been making lately. I'm doing the cables without a cable needle for the first time and it's going great (knock on wood).

Most of what you see was knitted in the car on Wednesday. We went to Annapolis to see the Smothers Brothers at the Rams Head Tavern and I knitted on the way down, for a little while in the car while we took a break from sight-seeing, and at the Tavern in the bar while we waited for our dinner reservation. I had 2 Copperhead lagers while I was working my way through the C&LR chart for the first time. I'm not sure whether that was the reason why I had to rip it out later or whether I just wasn't paying enough attention to what I was doing. Whatever, I was one stitch off and didn't notice it until I started the second repeat.

It's a long way around that XL sweater body (253 stitches) but I'm more of a process knitter than a results knitter, thank goodness. I hope to work on it a lot more tonight at our local community college basketball game and over the weekend.

I hope you are all able to get started real soon. I know you'll love it!

Cross-posted to the Lacy Cable Scoop Knit-Along.

A New Project

I started the Shell Beach Shawl by Dawn Leeseman in a Blue Heron Yarns silk/rayon twist from Y2Knit. God, how I love this yarn! The colorway is Tulip and it is stunning. Susan, who owns Y2Knit, had the same shawl hanging in the store and I just had to make it for myself. It's going very fast on #15 US needles and I should have it finished in a couple hours.

If you asked me to review the yarn I would have to say that it wants to stick to itself a little. This pattern calls for 3 rows of k1, yo2 all the way across. When it's time to turn the work and go back it's a real struggle to get those stitches and wraps off the cable and onto the needle. I'm not a really tight knitter so that isn't the issue. The yarn is just "grippy". This is just a slight annoyance however, and definitely wouldn't stop me from using this beautiful yarn again in the future.

Work continues on the Baudelaire socks.

It is a little loose but I can live with it. As I said in an earlier post, this is my first toe-up sock and I'm working on the gusset.

I think it's looking pretty good. I just hope I didn't start the gusset too late. Only time and more knitting will tell.

As for the Baby Kimono from Interweave Knits, I've had to stop because we can't locate anymore of the yarn in that dye lot (Claudia Hand Paints, Fingering Wt., Dye Lot 004 - Freesia). I thought I might take it along with me to Stitches East and see if I can find some. Meanwhile I will start it again in a different colorway. And THIS TIME I will buy 3 skeins.

Soft Shoulder Sleeve

Soft Shoulder Sleeve

This is one of my works in progress. It is the Soft Shoulders sweater from Knitters magazine. I can't remember the month or year right now. I'm knitting it from merino wool (yummie!) and I have both sleeves and the back done.