stranded on sleeve island

Agent Gray says, "Update your blog! I want to know what's going on!"

Honestly, there's not a lot going on. I did finish the One Skein Wonder knit of the Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk sent to me by my Secret Pal.



The little ball in the corner is the yarn leftover from this project. Wow! Just enough! thought I might run out and so made some plans ahead of time to tweak the pattern, but ended up having just what I needed. I think my Secret Pal should pat herself on the back for such a great gift! The finished product couldn't be nicer! The yarn is pretty limp in the ball but knits up to a nice fabric with lots of drape and loft. It's too hot out right now for me to wear it (it's even too hot for me to model it) but I know it will come in handy someday.

Agent Gray gifted me twice over this past week: first she gave me her robin's egg blue OSW that she made for herself but came out too small, and her second gift to me was her tip on the OSW sizing... don't make the thing too small! With my red version, I made mine two sizes larger than my measurements called for, and I am satisfied with the results.

Otherwise I am stuck on Sleeve Island (as they call it) working on the Lucky Cardi.



My sexier, more astute readers will see that I am working both sleeves at once on a circular needle. This way I can work the shaping for both at the same time and eliminate having to take notes during Sleeve One and refer to them constantly during the knitting of Sleeve Two. Also, it feels like things are going pretty slowly, but when I finish the sleeves, I'll be (duh) finished with the sleeves! No Second Sleeve Syndrome in which an enormous delay occurs as I try to put off having to knit the same (boring) piece a SECOND TIME. I thought that doing both at once would result in endless tangles and confusion, but it's actually been pretty smooth going although a tad bit slower than working them one at a time. I'm sure I will make up for it in not having to do the pattern-checking thing later on.

And of course, I continue to knit inch after inch on the tie-belt. One of my DPNs half-broke (splintered?) in my knitting bag but I think I can just tape it up and continue using it. If I just throw it out and replace it with a new one, I'll probably just break that one too. I've already lost one needle to this belt bastard, when I took it to a bluegrass festival and my beer-inspiring dancing meant flying (lost) needles.

It's been a busy week. I have worked what feels like every waking second, and when I'm not working, I'm either with, or mooning over, my new boy toy. In fact, I think I'll call him now: he's at home sick and without a working DVD player, and Dr. Pinky can help.