fiberrant

FINALLY I’m sitting at my computer this morning for my own pleasure, and I figured out what was wrong with the pattern link on the Orenburg lace page. The pattern itself has not been updated - there’s a little “issue” with Acrobat on my new computer. But I’m testing OpenOffice.org, which has a built-in PDF exporter. I’m also looking at cutting down the size of the chart, but that might be tricky. The center section doesn’t have a handy repeat.

In garden gnus, the sugar snap peas are blooming! They’re taller than me (and the trellis/netting they’re to grow on). According to my calculations, I should be expecting to start harvesting July 4th.

The roses are at their peak, and as beautiful & aromatic as ever. I think I’ve figured out why they’re so much less prolific than they were when we moved in. The maple tree, in the back corner of the yard, has at least doubled in size, and (now that I’ve seen the yard in mid-day sunshine) the roses, raspberries, peonies and Shasta daisies are in full shade. I should say, ex-Shasta daisies, because they were very thin 2 yrs ago, almost gone last year, and completely gone this year.

I’d hate to have to lose that tree, and the nice shady corner in the yard, but we’ve less than 1200 sq ft of backyard. Now, 700 sq ft of sunny yard. I’ve got to put in some raised beds, to make better use of the space.

Time’s gotten away from me. The site even went dark for a couple days, because I haven’t even been looking at email. Real life is kind of stressful right now, nothing disastrous, but cumulatively more than I could handle gracefully. Nuff said.

Some knitting’s been happening. I’m on the first sleeve of CeCe; started the body of Hillswick; and in Florida I bought some linen yarn (Euroflax Sport) and started Annie Modesitt’s Fern Lace Twinset. No FO’s, though.

Motherly bragging: Sean’s band, Man v. Moon, won the “Battle of the Bands” finals and have some great songs (you can here a couple on their site). Staffan made the Honor Roll, and won 3rd place in the intrascholastic Math competition. And Lisa is amazing - you can see here just how much she does, and how well!

While I’m looking on the bright side, I’m thinking about the other 1,096 times I’ve posted here over the last 6 years … It’s amazing how many times I’ve thought “When did X happen” - and found the answer here. I may be irregularly for a few weeks, but I will get my mojo back. (Thank you for your patience.)

A couple inches of thick, heavy, wet snow coated everything Friday morning, and made me glad I live here. So beautiful! By Saturday afternoon, most of the snow coating the trees had blown off. But these bushes (in Meridian Park, down by the canal) look just much like cotton ready to be picked.

We had a great walk yesterday, through woods & fields, on paths we’d never seen before. The sun was shining in a deep blue sky, and it felt much warmer than it actually was. We walked for an hour, then stopped for hot subs on the way home. My favorite kind of day.

Some progress made on CeCe … It’s been frogged twice, once because I cast on too many sts, once because I misread my gauge swatch. I’m knitting in Cascade Sierra, 80% cotton/20% wool, and I machine-washed and -dried my swatch. As I expected, there was significant shrinkage in the length, but not much in width, so my gauge is 5% small length-wise. I could block it to gauge, but then I’d have to block it every time I washed it. Which would never happen, of course. I’ll add a half-inch before shaping for the neckline, and call it done.

Progress on the Kauni, too. The sleeve and neck steeks are crocheted and cut; sleeves are picked up; and I’m knitting both sleeves at the same time, split at the center underarm, and steeked between them. It was tough to manipulate the circular needle for the first 2 inches or so, but now it’s coming along quite well. And the sleeves will match!

I stopped knitting last night, because the sleeve decrease rate seemed way too shallow. But now that I look at some FO sleeves more closely, I can see that it’s a wide sleeve, gathered sharply at the cuff. I like the look.

A rare picture of Samwich, our shrinking violet. Usually she hears the camera turn on, and she’s off like a shot. But yesterday afternoon she spent hours at the window, watching this mourning dove as it sat on the roof. It finally flew away about dusk, and we could all get some rest. Soon spring will be here, the window will be open, and she can watch birds from the roof - instead of watching birds on the roof.

(From Madwoman’s Lunchbox)

The Band Meme

Here’s how it goes. You are about to have your own band’s CD cover. Follow these directions to the letter. It’s fun and requires no thought at all. Go to……

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
- The first article title on the page is the name of your band.
http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
- The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.
http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
- The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

Use your graphics program of choice to throw them together, and post the result in your own journal because it’s more amusing that way.

My result:

Sounds like something Sean could use.

* Extra credit: Who made this phrase famous?

(Happy Easter!)

So, the relief from overwork was temporary. I enjoyed the respite, and return to workaholism with some new coping tools (most notably Gail, my administrative assistant). So the blog posts may be a bit sporadic again, until I hire another sysadmin.

I’m still knitting, though. I think the fiber drought was more depression than busy-ness: my zest for knitting/spinning/weaving - and living! - has returned. I’m back to multiple projects, I’ve completed two cardigans in the last eight weeks, and a third is growing.

The Kauni yarn is shetland-like: fine gauge, slightly scratchy. Watching the colors is fun, but makes me anxious - did I start in the right place? Are they coming out right? I started by combining complementary colors - yellow/purple, red/green, blue/orange - so everything looks a bit dull to me, almost brownish. Then I pulled out part of a section of purple, so the combinations are changing to triadic: orange/purple, blue/yellow, green/ orange, etc. I don’t know what this will do. I have only a dim understanding of color theory. But looking at Kauni’s on Ravelry, I can see that either a) the starting point makes a huge difference, or b) the dye lots are vastly different. I think it’s more a) than b).

Anyway. Two more pattern repeats, then I start the sleeve steeks. I’m trying to imagine knitting steeked sleeves, too, picked up and knit from the top down, both at the same time. Would it be possible? The idea of making the sleeves identical pleases me. I could knit them together, but not picked up from the body of the sweater, then sew them in (a la the Snowflake cardigan). I don’t know yet what I’ll do.

So … yarn is arriving here daily (at least for the last 2 days, though it’s pretty much over it still feels like such an avalanche) and I’m wondering where to start. Last night’s package was four big balls of Kauni Effektgarn 8/2, in the colorway, to make the Ruth Sørenson’s Kauni Rainbow cardigan. Yes, these skeins are the same colorway, they’re just wound from a different starting point in the color sequence. I actually started rewinding one of the skeins, just to make sure. I had to cast on immediately, even though I swatched the Cascade Sierra that arrived on Thursday.

Everyone in the entire universe has knit this cardigan, nearly all from the same colorway. This makes me a lemming, and a late one at that. But. It’s interesting to browse through the finished sweaters in Ravelry, and see how the relative starting points affect the finished piece. I’ve been examining the ribbing on all of them, to see what I like best, and I’m not sure I’ve got what I want. So it’s paused while I get out my crayons and thinking cap. There’s about 100 gr more yarn than I need, so it won’t hurt to start partway up the skein.

Best wishes to Corrie and Bowden, who are tying the knot in Indianapolis today! I wish I could be there. My advice to Corrie: Don’t ask for advice from me. I didn’t get the marriage thing right, even with a do-over.

JoAnn’s has a lot of buttons. Unfortunately, not a lot of any one kind. Here’s what came home with me:

All silver, all look good with the grey-blue-green yarn. I particularly like the Celtic knot button, but it’s a bit too small. I’d have to tighten up the button holes. Which I kind of don’t want to do, since I’m so proud of mastering EZ’s one-row buttonhole (from Knitter’s Almanac). If they’d had more than four of this button in the 1 1/8″ size, it would have been absolutely perfect. Oh well.

There are more cardigans to come in the next few weeks. A dark blue wool/cotton blend, which would look great with the blue-black button in the center. Another in “pumpkin spice”, which sounds lovely but I’ve seen so many different swatches of this color, I don’t have any idea what’ll be in the box.

So for now, I’ll finish the collar, sew in the ends and cogitate on the buttons. Hopefully, a finished model shot this weekend.

Still no buttons in sight for Twist, but that should be rectified shortly. Seaming is done, button bands knit, and the collar in progress. I won’t be going to Village Yarn & Fiber, though - I can’t buy buttons when they’re displayed in the window. Fine at night, or possibly on a rainy day. Not good when it’s even a little bright outside. (Sorry - I think I’ve blogged this peeve before. Still ticked off about it, though. They may have even moved their buttons, I wouldn’t know because I Have A Long Memory.)

The other thing about those darling button displays, with tubes full of buttons … How does one buy them? Do you take the whole tube up to the register, or just dump out the number you need? Have you ever seen more than 4 or 5 buttons in one of them? I’m planning to go to JoAnn’s for my buttons, because it’s sort of on my way home, and because I’m comfortable buying buttons on cards, hanging up on a display, in the center of a well-lit store.

Yesterday was splendid. I found the source of an imbalance in an account (we still aren’t done with our 2007 audit yet), and I had my annual review (much more glowing than I even hoped!). It’ll be hard to match that today. I’ve got one more account to track down, and another meeting with the auditor. This is actually more fun than I imagined, this finance thing.

Time to pack up the knitting. Wednesday is the long commute (by way of Avon).

From the irritation overwhelming me this fine Sunday afternoon. We’ve got the sun shining brightly on the mountains of snow … which I had to drive through, because the burglar alarm at the office was tripped. (This isn’t usually my duty, but I’m filling in while the regular gal takes care of some personal stuff.) And when I arrive, I find the guy who has really been pissing me off lately. He’s sitting at his desk, with his feet up, drinking coffee as if nothing was wrong.

WHY, I want to know, do people have so little consideration? Didn’t it occur to him that *someone* might have been notified about that great big clanging noise, the one that started 60 seconds after he entered the building? Did he think that everyone had just gone to lunch, and that’s why there were no cars in the lot? What a &$*(^ing idiot.

So, on to the distraction. I finished the second sleeve on Twist last night, and seamed until I remembered that “spring forward” means an hour less sleep, not more. This morning I’ve been running errands, doing laundry, driving all the way in to work for no reason, and baking a cake. Now it’s time for finishing.

I also have made an unusually large number of yarn acquisitions in the last 48 hours. I won’t have to worry about what I’m going to knit - only what I’ll knit next. Heaven!

It’s pretty here this morning, in the space between storms. The northeasterly wind hasn’t picked up yet, so all the wet, heavy snow from last night is still coating the trees, bushes, twigs, even the railing on our front steps. I had to rush out to take pictures, because the wind is already picking up a little. There’s the cutest mini-drift on the south edge of our neighbor’s roof. Another 6-8 inches is predicted for tonight, thanks to that northeasterly wind and the lake effect snow it brings.

Winter, from my front porch (Click for bigger)

March in Rochester is nowhere near spring. We always have snow, sometimes the biggest storms of the year. We had one in 1999 - three feet or more in 24 hours. It takes a lot of snow to stop traffic here, but that storm did. Everything closed - it was coming down that fast, the plows couldn’t clear the roads. What fun, having a snow day!

Since we had no plans for this weekend, I’m not distressed about being housebound. I might sit down at the wheel and try to get my spinning mojo back. Staffan’s here, so he can help with the shoveling. We’ve got plenty of milk, bread, food, beer and wine. No need to run out for cigarettes (yay! Five months for me now). We’re snug as three bugs in a rug.

The storm was far less severe than my hysterical imagination predicted. Being the 17th anniversary - to the day! - of the Big Storm™, and seeing how quickly my windshield iced up driving home from Avon last night, I was fearing the worst.

I had fun at dinner last night, because Staffan wasn’t around in 1991, and apparently he hasn’t heard the stories too many times … “You lived at Grandma’s?”, or “You had a dog?” made me feel like I’ve shortchanged him on the family history. OTOH, he may have heard and discarded it all several times before. He remembers things very well, but selectively.

No knitting so far this week, aside from a row or two on the cabled socks. I’m too tired when I get home. This recovery rate is hard to plot: so much slower than my expectations the first 2 weeks, then so quick last week that I thought I was all better; but now I’m still not 100%. I haven’t been back to the gym, for example. All the rates are in the right direction, though - so I’m not complaining! And by the time I can get out and dig in the garden, I’ll be 100% again.

Speaking of the garden - I can’t wait to see daffodils and primroses. Another six weeks, right? Big plans this year include: snap peas, green peppers and sweet potatoes. No annual flowers out back, at all. We’ll put the peppers in pots on the deck, again. It worked really well for water control there (peppers like it hot and dry, and our yard is too wet) and besides, it looks good. The sweet potatoes will go in where I’m clearing out that tall phlox-y weed-y flower, the one that’s taken over the east end of the center bed. And the peas will go way out back, where the strawberries have petered out. Yeah - like 25 feet from the deck is “way out back”.

So many plans! I hope by late April I still have this much enthusiasm.

PS - Lisa, click here to see how cute baby knitting can be. (This is not pressure, though! I am totally happy to wait for grandmacity grandmotherishness grandmomitude becoming a grandma.)

Yesterday was a work day (end of month - I went in to the office, since this month I was scheduled to train our accountant, but he called in sick! I was not amused) so today I’m treating myself to an entire Day Off. I could go to the gym today - I’m cleared to resume all normal activities - but I’m not quite feeling up to it. My six-day work week, including a twelve-hour day with a meeting in Minneapolis, was enough exercise for me.

In short, I’m feeling great … considering my surgery was just four weeks ago. I deserve to take it easy today.

So, the plans: I’ve got Twist on the needles (in fact, the second front is almost half done). I want to curl up under a blanket, watch some mindless TV, slow roast a corned beef, and forget about the world until tomorrow. With a full day on the couch, I could probably finish both sleeves of Twist, and be ready for blocking and finishing. I’d better order that Cascade, pronto! Except I still can’t decide on a color.

Too tired to bring a real post together, and too slow to post it on Wednesday.

• Gluten free treat - Check out the recipe for Healthy Bars (Lifesastitch version). They look delicious!
• We’ve gotten 81 inches of snow this season, and that’s 3 inches more than normal. But it feels like we’ve gotten no snow at all.
• Remember when I was about to order those Knitpicks Options needles the other day? Still haven’t done it. Not sure when I will. But when I do, I’ll need them yesterday, and have to pay for expedited shipping … Procrastination is my favorite hobby. Why put off until tomorrow, the things you can do next week?
• I’m looking for a new audio book for Staffan. He listens to three books on his iPod constantly (Ireland, A Short History of Nearly Everything, and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell). I’ve got a couple I’m thinking about: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which is an interesting story but will go way over his head; Simple Courage, another Frank Delaney story, about a ship that was hit by a rogue wave;The Adventure of English, by Melvyn Bragg - fun, but language isn’t really his cup of tea. If you’ve got a suggestion that’s appropriate for a young teen, please let me know.
• I’m all agog, watching this a master of this skill: Knowing what percentage of your job you can f&*k up so that you won’t have to do it, but still won’t be fired. The ancillary talent, refusing tasks, makes it harder to maintain employment - since it seems so willful, and often flirts with insubordination. But screwing up, when done right, can create empathy or pity enough to keep one employed. Do I sound bitter?
• Someday I’ll sew Heirloom Labels into my “creations”. Mom had these when I was a kid, and I always wanted my very own when I grew up.
• Flying in a small jet - we’re talking 6-seater, not a 20-seat commercial airliner - at night, and descending into a thick cloud full of snow, is perhaps the most terrifying thing I’ve ever encountered. I’m not real big on the flying thing, in general. But seeing nothing but flashing white on the WINDSHIELD, for crying out loud, and all the windows too? Right out of a horror movie. (Flashing, because of the blinking lights on the wings.) Fortunately, it only lasted a couple of minutes, right before landing. Taking off in Minnesota, though, the clouds lasted from 1500 - 26,000 feet. I don’t like IFR flying.
• Not much knitting in the plane. I brought my sock-of-the-moment, a cabled rib sock from Charlene Schurch’s Sensational Socks, but it’s not going with the yarn. Which is STR Mustang Sally, shades of red, and actually has a lot of intensity variation in it. It’s also knit too tight, so I changed to a 2.25mm needle - just before the descending-into-hell incident. I’ll evaluate more later.

Now it’s off to work. I’ve got a million things to wrap up today.

I wore my new Patti cardigan yesterday, and was surprised that several people noticed and liked it. (Coworkers, the nurse at my gyn office, a waitress at lunch.) Weird - my handknits don’t usually get that much feedback. Though usually it’s a lace shawl, which is a different animal altogether. People don’t comment on shawls, either because they don’t wear them, or because they are so … unusual.
I’m happy overall with how Patti came out, though if I make it again, I’ll make a few changes:

• knit longer below the pleats, and maybe an smidge more above. (Or maybe just get plastic surgery, or have the law of gravity reversed.)
• knit the sleeves either longer, or shorter; they’re too short to be long sleeves, but too long to be short sleeves.
• hmm - just the two things. Not bad.

I found the perfect buttons on an ancient cotton cardigan. It originally had 5 buttons, but was so old and tired that only three were left. I used EZ’s one-row buttonhole (from A Knitters Almanac) - how clever! Without the little flap that my own unvented ones always have. I also finally grokked why you should always make them (buttonholes) horizontal. The alpaca cardi I knit a few years ago, that would never stay buttoned? It had vertical slits instead of horizontal - too much elasticity, in the wrong place.

Now on the needles: Twist (Ravelry link), by Bonne Marie Burns. A simple aran cardigan, in Mission Falls 1824 wool (the wool of Saturday’s yarn crawl). I thought I’d make Ariann first, but then realized this yarn would be better for Twist.

I’ve got some Cascade 220 in a cart online somewhere, but I’m not sure what color I want yet. Lisa made hers in black, which looks so great (and Lisa’s is the entire reason why I want to make it! The model shots look kinda sloppy). But it’s February, and I need color. Raspberry, or fire engine red, or maybe pumpkin. Another reason why most people don’t mention my knitted garments: their stunningly inappropriate colors. My entire wardrobe is black, white, denim or khaki.

Tonight, I’m too tired to pick colors. Besides, I’ve only got the back (almost) done. I won’t be ready for Ariann for at least a couple weeks.

Yes, people get too many catalogs. Yes, it uses up a lot of paper. No, I certainly don’t want to mail my catalogs to people who don’t want them. I’d love to get just 5% of the non-buyers off my mailing list! It’s horribly expensive to print and mail catalogs. But Catalogchoice.org is going about their “mission” all wrong. [No, I’m not going to link to them. Type it in, or JFGI.]

There is already The DMA - the premier direct mail association, offering a direct mail preference service. They work with direct mailers, to help get consumers off mailing lists. All responsible direct mailers use The DMA’s “no pander” list, matching it against lists of prospect (not customer) names to suppress them before mailing.

The DMA makes it easy for consumers to opt out of junk mail. There’s a form right on their web site. It works for every catalog that you have not already purchased from - you don’t have to specify which ones you don’t want. And if you sign up online, it is free. (The $1 is for handling your mailed-in paper request.)

The DMA doesn’t bully, coerce, or shame its members into compliance. It’s a wonderful service, it’s transparent to mailers, and it’s free to DMA members. Compare that to Catalog Choice: they seem to actually be in the business of collecting names & email addresses, and tracking your online purchasing behavior. To what end? Who is behind them? Why can’t they promote the DMA’s service, which already works? (Because they wouldn’t get to have a hefty new mailing list, that’s why. Mailing lists can be worth big bucks, let me tell you.) Catalog Choice is just the most recent player; there are several, just google “junk mail” and you’ll find dozens.

If you’re my customer: please call, email or fax in your request. We’ve already prepared our mailings that will be delivered in mid-March, so it will take up to 6 weeks to become effective. You don’t need to mail back every catalog you receive in the mean time, marked “second notice” - though these ARE the ones that get put on my desk.

We get hundreds of mailed-in “unsubscribe me” requests every day. People call, email, and fax us, too. It takes time and money to employ people, just to put these names & addresses in the computer; but it’s nowhere near as costly as mailing out unwanted catalogs.

If you’ve never bought from me, then you can do 2 things to avoid getting my catalog the FIRST time:

1) Every time you make a purchase from a catalog or online, request that your name not be rented or shared. If they don’t rent your name to me, I won’t try to send you a catalog. Just add a comment as you check out, if the site doesn’t already have an option button for this. (Did you know that KnitPicks was the third fastest growing mailing lists - PDF link! - in the US last year? Way ahead of my list … )

2) Register with The DMA Mail Preference Service. These folks already have the infrastructure to work with the printers, mailing houses and catalogers and can get you off the mailing lists, fast.

There. I feel a little bit better now. Before you enter your name and address on a web site, beware! Just because a company was on on CNN, it doesn’t mean they’re on the up-and-up.

I went out to East Rochester yesterday to look for yarn. Unfortunately, the store just isn’t the same under the new ownership. They’ve got a huge sale on, but no extra help; the shelves are arranged poorly; the yarn is all over the place, with no clear method to the madness; nothing has more than 3-4 skeins of each color displayed, but there is no one to look for more. Ugh.

I’d decided on Cascade 220 Heather for Twist. They had some colors, and some heathers too, but almost all browns, oranges & yellows. (Not the pale blue / lilac I was looking for.) There were some medium purples, and navy, but none of these would do. Besides, nothing had more than a couple skeins on display - do most of their customers knit hats & scarves?

I needed buttons, too, and recalled that they have a lot of buttons. But! they are all set up on the windowsills, and yesterday just happened to be quite sunny. I couldn’t even tell the color, let alone any texture or detail. And if I’m going to pay $2.50 or more per button, I’m not going to have to squint and guess to do it.

The one thing they did have was Interweave Knits Spring 2008, which is out of stock at Interweave. I renewed my subscription, finally, but got a notice that it won’t start until Summer because they’re out of stock.

So off we go to Brighton, LYS #2 on my all time list. She too is having a sale, but not nearly so busy. And she has plenty of help, not only finding a substitute for the Cascade (only limited shades in stock, nothing I wanted) but finding enough of the two dye lots so I can knit the back & sleeves from one, the fronts, bands & collar from the other. (Her tip: changes in dye lot won’t be so noticeable when there’s a seam between them.) I saved $20 on 1824 Wool in a greyed teal, beautiful shade, and I love this yarn.

So I cast on for Twist, and we’re past the waist shaping already. After all the knitting on US 2s & 3s, this feels like giant kindergarten knitting - and it goes so fast! I want to knit Ariann too (I bought three patterns - these two plus CeCe) so I’ll need some yarn for it. CeCe might be nice in a hot pink funky boucle yarn I’ve got in the stash. Ariann needs Cascade, so I’ll look around online.

It’s been another long week, a big rollercoaster (about which I can’t blog, but we had thrills n chills aplenty). And nothing came of any of it, though we’ve gotten some insight into growing the business in the next months and years. I’m hoping for a calmer day today, though.

I haven’t frogged Fulmar again, but I cast on for Son of A.R.A.N. from the Aran Knit list, ages ago. Done with swatching, patterns selected, and the 2nd shoulder strap started - all in the same yarn as Fulmar. Only one of them shall survive, but it’s too soon to tell which it’ll be.

I’ve also got sock yarn burning a hole in my stash drawer. Unlike so many people, I can’t seem to hang on to sock yarn long enough to call it “stash”. Socks are too easy and too quick to knit. They don’t stay around long at all. Which is probably a good thing. I’m on a Cookie A jag right now, and trying to decide which is next. Monkey socks? Pomatomous? Mona? (I’m especially fond of Mona.) If I had time (and lots of blog readers), I’d create one of those poll thingies. Oh well.

It’s almost time to start the daily grind. My new schedule (no work before 8 am) means that on weekends, I have no blogs left to read. I’m not up to winding a warp (never mind putting it on the loom!) but I’m thinking about it. Leigh’s Ms and Os are beautiful, I have Davison’s book, and it works on my four-shaft loom. I could plan it out, and order the yarn (I only have teal, red and yellow cotton right now - time for something completely different.)

You never know what each day will bring. You can get up in the morning, go to work, and bam! The crack of creativity strikes, and you’re charging down a completely new road.

I think that’s the best part of my job. It can be a grind, sometimes for weeks or months at a time, but then all of a sudden I get a stretch of change, growth, creativity, movement that makes the dull part seem worth it. It’s like spring following winter; you hunker down and bear the cold & dark, then the sun returns and everything pops.
I’m not sure, but yesterday was good - and this week could be the start of one of “those” times. I’ve still got hard work to do, teaching and training people to do what I’ve been doing, but it looks like I’ll have a direction to go when that’s finished.

I’ve got to keep nurturing my life outside the office, too. I’ve been working on Fulmar. I frogged the entire back to the armscye, a few weeks ago, and after Patti was done* I swatched with a 3.0mm needle instead of the 3.25mm I’d been using. So I cast on again. But. The ribbing was coming out at 48″ on the 2.75mm needles, though I’d cast on for size Medium, and even though I got gauge I was headed to frog city. Better sooner than later, right?

So now we’ve cast on again, this time for size Small, and the bottom ribbing looks good at about 44″. It will still have plenty of ease. I thought about casting on for a sleeve, instead of all 196 sts for the back - but the pattern schematic gives no measurements for the sleeves.

In about another 20 minutes, I’m going to toss the whole thing and design my own damn Aran. Janet Szabo’s Follow the Leader Aran Knitalong (FLAK) looks wonderful, mostly from the finished FLAK pictures in Ravelry. Top-down design, multiple neckline treatments, cardigan option, measurement guides - all I have to do is pick my favorite cables, swatch and measure.

I want to design my own sweater, yes, but I don’t want to spend the brainpower to start from scratch. Maybe this cookie-cutter design recipe will work. Anyone tried it? I’ve been a member of the Aran Knitting Yahoo group for years, and Janet’s posts are wonderful - concise, helpful and creative.

But first, the job. Today is a long day. Dr. appt, 6 hrs at the office, then to Avon for dinner with Staffan. I’ll leave work by 3:30 pm, and be home by 5:30, so it’s not a horrendously long day, but I imagine it will tax my stamina nonetheless. Yesterday I felt great - got home at 4:30, stayed up for dinner. Much better than last week!

I had such help with the knitting Saturday! Samwich was at my side all day, ready to help should any yarn try to escape.Sammy’s pretty much been helping in this capacity for 2 weeks now, but Friday & Saturday were the first days I really got a lot of knitting accomplished. It was a good day, because a) the sun shone in the bedroom window like this all afternoon, and b) the mailman brought me a package.

Not the Knitpicks needles - I haven’t actually ordered them yet, still debating the metal-vs-wood issue. But sock yarn from Wendee of Hazelknits (with a thank-you note and a sweet blue stitch marker!) appeared on the doorstep. The colorways are Baroness (on the right, shades of deep purples with a touch of teal and cinnamon) and Chocolatier (a variety of rich browns, from hot cocoa to bittersweet chocolate).

Today, I’ll be seaming. Patti is nearly done. I finished the sleeves yesterday, and set them to block. The button bands are done (still need to find buttons, though). And last night I knit the collar - which took WAY more yarn than I thought was reasonable.

All in all, Patti (Ravelry link) has used about 14.5 skeins of Merino Style, almost 1800 yds. The pattern reports it takes 1528 - 1910 yds, so I may have been dreaming when I ordered the yarn. Somehow, I thought I’d have enough left over to make Eunny’s Deep V Argyle Vest. Oh well.

Pictures to follow, after it’s finished (and I’m presentable again!).