Blond Knitters Anonymous

Remember my toe up, heel flap sock? The one I said Mim must think I'm the stupidest knitter out there? Another DOH moment. I've been alternating between knitting each sock. I started the first one using the inside strand. I started the second using the outside strand because I didn't feel like breaking off the first one, and you cannot wind yarn on my electric ball winder using the outside strand if the inside strand is already connected to something (as in, a knitting project). Yes, blonde moment there too--both the "I should have wound half off before I started" and "maybe I can wind on the electric winder from the outside while the inside is still connected to XYZ".

But a new blonde moment! The yarn is self-patterning, with a flecked area, a beige stripe and a green stripe. When you knit from opposite ends of the ball, the pattern goes in the opposite direction! But I bet you knew that! I am casting off as soon as I cast off from here. I did one last night. The leg is in K2,P1 rib, and I did K2tog, pass back to LHN, rep. It was not stretchy enough! So I ripped it out and cast off in pattern as loose as I could. It's better, but not perfect.

I made this sweater for my mom, using the same yarn as for Lucy's Valentine's sweater. I used Knitware to do the math, although it is such a plain design that it wasn't really necessary. I made it on the KnitSmart machine. I got off to a rocky start, and for some reason it took me forever to convert the ribbing on the back (the first piece I made). But then I knew we'd being seeing my parents so I got my act together and wove in the ends the night before the visit, LOL. It doesn't go with the green jeans she likes, but oh well :) I think I used exactly 10 balls. I have a bag of 10 left, and I think I bought 20. I was going to weigh it but I forgot. And it fits her!

This is an angel baby blanket. In the "Slightly Crunchy Attachment Parenting" Yahoo group I'm in, a member had a pre-term stillbirth. She's in Indianapolis and my in-laws are going down, so I thought they could drop it off at the hospital. Then, a couple weeks ago, the leader of the Kitchener-Waterloo-Guelph NINO group ("Nine In, Nine Out"--of the womb--but mostly they discuss babywearing) had a full term still birth, so I think I will send it to the Kitchener hospital.

In the picture, it's actually sideways to how it's knit (on the standard gauge). The proportions are a little strange, I didn't know how big to make it. So I used almost all 200 needles, and did almost 350 rows. It looked long enough on the machine, but I think it could have had more rows. But I was actually getting a little bored. Using a punch card, and one colour, I don't have to do anything but move the carriage back and forth. It made a really nice tuck stitch pattern.

This is the knit side, in tuck, that's usually the wrong side, but I think it's kind of neat.This is the purl side. The blanket has curled terribly. Machine knitters often 'kill' acrylic items by steaming them heavily. Just before I was set to do this, I mentioned to one the yarn I was using and she wrote back to NOT kill it. But now what? I was thinking of satin blanket binding, but then I have to sew it on. I could crochet around it, but the yarn is like lace weight and you need more than one row of single or double crochet.

It's a really soft yellow, very pretty. The patio chair it's resting on is a grey mesh and I think it was showing through the blanket in the pictures.

We're not all quite back to health, but are soldiering on anyway. I couldn't stand one more day of having Huey home, LOL.