Oh, bother....

*New and improved... now with pictures!*

So I finally got my act together yesterday and took some pictures for ye olde blog, and now I'm having issues getting the pictures off the card. Long story short, my card reader doesn't seem to work with the brand spankin' new iBook I just got (I love it though!), and my PC is refusing to find the card reader now, as well. I am ready to pull my hair out. As soon as I get my act together and am able to retrieve pictures, I'll be sure to post some, until then, a pictureless post.

I zipped along happily on Rogue, finishing the body and back in short order. The yarn is wonderful to work with, and the pattern is excellent for movie or reading knitting. Or so I thought.


I got about, oh, 12 rows into the throat chart on the front, when I stopped to look at my work. "Hmm, that doesn't seem quite right," I thought. It looked very... flat, and... ugly. Kind of like a mishmash of garter and seed stitches. Obviously, I did my increases incorrectly somehow (that's the only explanation I can come up with), though when those same increases were called for before, I did fine. I thought of dropping down stitches and picking them back up correctly, but I think with all the increasing in that tiny area, it would be more trouble than it's worth. I will have to rip out what I've done for the front so far. Since I am loathe to do it, enter new project #1.



I'm making a sweater for my youngest nephew, who turns two on Wednesday. Just a simple rollneck in this beautiful alpaca yarn, Artful Yarns Jazz. I have the same yarn in a blue color that I plan to use to make a sweater for my five year-old nephew (he turns six on November 30). My sister is okay with handwashing, so I don't feel the least bit guilty about giving her sweaters that require it. I have to use up my alpaca somehow, anyway. I get about three rows into this sweater before I start sneezing. Such a shame.

Yesterday was the annual sale at one of my LYSs, and my favorite knitting buddy, Amy, and I went. This year, I knew exactly what I was buying. You know that Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Astrakhan cardigan in the new Vogue Knitting? I am all over it. I planned to make mine in black, but they didn't have any black when we got there. I like the way the brown looks in the photo shown in the magazine, but I wasn't crazy about it in real life. It wasn't as dark as I would have liked. I was beginning to despair when Amy pointed out a beautiful shade of blue toward the bottom shelf. It didn't take me long to decide that the cardigan would work in blue. And blue is my favorite color, after all. I have a dearth of it in my wardrobe. I made a swatch, and couldn't wait to cast on for the sweater when I was done.


Due to the nature of the yarn, I did my swatch a little differently. I casted on for the numbers of stitches I should have in four inches, and measured the entire piece. As for casting on, the pattern has you do just two rows of garter stitch in the beginning before switching to stockinette. I didn't feel this would be enough, so I did about a half inch of garter stitch instead.

I'll come back and edit this post when I can get my pictures off of the memory card. Maybe by the time I do that, I'll have the damn cardigan finished!

***Now that I'm a couple of rows into the Astrakhan cardigan, I can see that it's way too big. Now, granted, the smallest size says that it's 41", but what I have looks even bigger than that. Since I have a 34" bust, I'm thinking I'm going to have to do a little creative math. Maybe I'll wait and see what Becky does, since she's a skinny minny and she's making the same sweater.

Also! I totally forgot to post pictures of my completed Branching Out. Here goes:



The GGH Mystic I used for the scarf is quite slinky, so the scarf is not so full anymore. I don't mind though, it's the look I was going for. Kind of a touselled, casual elegance kinda thing. You know.