So I buckled down and turned some UFOs into FOs.

Hooray! First was my mom's vest. I had stopped because the way I understood the pattern, the armholes were more like slits, but the pattern (and reality) is that they're more like gaps. When that was clear, I raced through the last of it and blocked it, to my mom's appreciation. Apparently she gets compliments whenever she wears it. I'll coordinate with her soon for some pics.

Then, I finished Butterfly. I had stopped because I was afraid the straps would stretch when on, and didn't know how long to knit them. I ended up knitting them as if they would stretch, and then blocked them stretched. So they're the right length, and they will stay that way.

Unblocked Butterfly, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

Pattern Detail, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

Hem Detail, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

Unblocked, Pattern + Beads Detail, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

This last photo is closest to the actual color.

While I was waiting to figure out what to do with the straps, I began knitting the camisole version of Butterfly. I had bought three skeins of yarn for the dress, afraid of running out, and the dress took a little less than two. One skein of laceweight isn't enough for much, so I decided to make a camisole, which would make a more versatile, casual version of the design. I ended up using that one skein, plus a little bit of the yarn left over from the dress. Perfect.

Butterfly Tank, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

I began knitting the camisole on a car trip to San Francisco, where I spent last Christmas with my family. My sister liked the design, so I had her pick a color (I already had the color card for KnitPicks Shadow, which I used for mine) and got to work on hers (she wanted a dress with the same iridescent beads from mine). I raced through hers, and spent a frenzied couple of weeks finishing it (and the trim and straps from my dress and camisole) and then blocking all three. I was up until three one night, but it was great to have them all finished and blocked. There will be blocked pictures (and modeled pictures) someday in the near future.

Finished Butterfly, Unblocked, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

Unblocked Pattern Detail, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

Unblocked Hem Detail, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

Yarn Plus Beads, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

Like the first Butterfly, the second two were knit in the round, with hem frills done in one long strip. I picked up stitches around the top and did the trim and straps before blocking (I didn't have to block before seaming - no seams - and I wanted to block everything). For my sister's, I left the middle stitches at the top live, and simply put them on the needle when I needed to pick up stitches for the trim. This was to save time and effort, but it also turns out that the cast-off edge pulls at the lace a little, and messes with the top of the garment. So leaving the top stitches live was the best option.

After all of that, I decided to make something different. I have knit birthday presents for myself in the past, but often forgot to, or didn't even realize how the timing was working out in terms of my birthday until I was most of the way through the knitting. This year, the timing's right to have a FO in time for my birthday (April 19) and I have a pattern, and the time! The pattern is from a book I bought about a year ago - Knitting Lingerie Style by Joan McGowan-Michael. It's a great book, and has some lovely designs. It's one of few pattern books I've found that I would knit more than one thing in it (for this book, make that four or five!), which is why I bought it in the first place.

I really bought the book for the Bed Jacket design, though, which I love. So I bought the recommended yarn - Cascade Sierra - in a great chocolate brown color, and cast on about a week ago. I did the body and sleeves last weekend, and have done the front trim over the week. I blocked the body and sleeves over the past couple days, to spread out the finishing and seaming.

I'm making it with a few modifications - so far, the body was knit in the round to the armholes, and the shoulders were done with short rows and a three-needle bind off. The sleeves were knit in the round, up to the split for the sleeve cap. For the trim, I played around with knitting it all in one piece, but ended up knitting the first part, then picking up stitches along the cast on edge for the second piece. When it's finished, I'll use a three needle bind off, rather than having to seam. That was confusing. Anyway, this will make it much simpler and easier - big pluses for me.

Well,

I buckled down and zoomed through several inches on mom's vest. I now have everything from the bottom to the split for the underarms in one fuzzy, variegated rectangle. Like I said before, I've been following a diagram she gave me, measured from an existing vest. But at the armholes, the math goes funny. It's much wider around at the bottom, and then it suddenly loses about ten inches, right where the armholes come in. And armholes aren't normally five inches wide, right? Anyway, progress has stopped until we can re-measure.

Meanwhile, because that knitting energy has to go somewhere, I picked up butterfly again. I was farther along when I stopped than I thought I was, so it really wasn't much work. I finished the body today, and now all I have left is the trim around the top edges and the straps. And blocking, of course. Of course. Pictures soon.

Recently, admiring things on Smitten Kitchen

has turned to making things on Smitten Kitchen. That started on Sunday, when the boy accompanied me to a restaurant supply store, or the only place I could find high gluten flour. I started making bagels that night and had them finished Monday. I was a little anxious about the whole thing, mostly because it was my first experience with yeast and kneading, but the bagels turned out rather well. The skins weren't as tough as I like, though, so I think I'll boil for two minutes if I make them again. Pictures soon.

And last night, I used the last of the high gluten flour to surprise the boy with homemade pizza for dinner. I had to start making dinner three hours early so the dough could rise, though the total work involved was probably a little over an hour. Impractical, but a nice little treat. Plus the boy was thrilled and it was delicious.

Also, I generally don't worry too much about what I eat. I know that's bad, and sometimes I feel guilty about what I'm putting into my body, but really, paying attention to all that stuff would be exhausting. All the same, making my pizza and bagels meant I know there was nothing funny in them. And they tasted so fresh! (Um...duh.)

In case you were wondering, and you probably weren't, I haven't knit much lately. I stopped work on everything but my mom's birthday vest so it wouldn't be terribly late, and then work tapered off on that out of ennui. Perhaps after the cooking fun dies down.

As promised,

I bring you blocked pictures of Print O' the Wave.

Print o' the Wave blocked, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

blocked pattern detail, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

blocked border detail, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

I had to re-work the graft on the border a few times to make it more seamless. It's a little noticible now, but I think I did pretty well.

the graft, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

After Print O' the Wave, I immediately started work on Butterfly. I really took my time with Butterfly, rather than the mad dash through Print O' the Wave. I originally thought beads would be nice for Butterfly, but I decided that if I didn't find some I liked, the yarn would be pretty without them. I was able to find some cheap clear iridescent beads at Michael's, though, so that decision was easily made.

Rather than try to seam in lace, I decided early to knit it in the round. To that end, I knit both hem frills in one long strip, and grafted them even before picking up stitches for the body, to minimize finishing later. Work went quickly on the body, and I am now working the last few inches before dividing at the underarms. Pictures soon.

My mom's birthday was in mid-October, and she commissioned another birthday vest. We didn't pick out yarn until Saturday, though, so my deadline is really just however fast I can knit it. My mom has an existing vest that she likes and she measured it and gave me a complete diagram, so the designing work is mostly done for me. Butterfly will probably go on hold or mostly on hold until her vest is done. It will be mostly stockinette, very teevee knitting, so I expect it will be a breeze. Pictures of that later too.

I tried to make a tie for Giselle, but I tried to compensate for knitting it too small by over-blocking. Now it's too stretched and too big. I'll block again sometime soon to fix it.

While I waited for my yarn to arrive in the mail,

I improvised a case for my Nintendo DS. This was my first intarsia, and it was easy, even though I didn't make bobbins and my yarns tangled a little. Keeping my tension even was a bit of a problem, but it really flew by.

Triforce DS Case - Front, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

Triforce DS Case - Closed, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

Triforce DS Case - Open, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

And then the yarn came. I settled on white for Print O' the Wave, and I knit it at top speed, impatient and counting repeats the whole time. It was a breeze, my only real problem was picking up all those tiny stitches for the inner border and I had to redo the graft on the border a couple times to make it a bit more invisible. Blocked pictures later.

Print O the Wave in progress, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

Unblocked finished Print O the Wave, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

Unblocked pattern detail, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

Unblocked border detail, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

In other news, the boy sweater and Giselle both got blocked. My mom ended up having to unpin them and dry all the sheets and towels on the bed where they were blocking, and completely re-block because they were so wet. She didn't do it quite like I would have, but I would probably have been fighting with mold otherwise. The boy sweater got some buttons as well, but we haven't managed to take any modeled pictures yet, so the bed/floor will have to do for now.

Finished Boy Sweater!, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

I think the buttons are my favorite part. We found some nice wood ones, and they have a great texture and feel.

Boy sweater button detail, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

This was a definite disappointment to discover, but I plan to fix it in the next few days. I think I nipped one of these strands when I was cutting one of the last loose ends after weaving them in.

Boy sweater: oops., originally uploaded by rubychan4.

Here's the inside of the sweater, complete with a spare button sewn onto the seam facing.

Inside of the boy sweater, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

No modeled pictures of Giselle yet, mostly because I haven't made a tie. I'll probably do that within the next few days too.

Progress!

Giselle is finished and I am in the process of weaving in ends now. I am a little worried about it, because it is knit completely in stockinette and the crochet doesn't seem to be stopping it from curling. I'm hoping that gets better with blocking. It's a little too small, mostly because I used needles a size too small rather than go out and buy new ones, and when I tried to compensate by knitting looser, I just made my knitting really uneven. Which will also get better in blocking. I hope.

Somewhere in the middle of knitting the sleeve flares, I realized that they are huge. On, they reach about to my wrist at the lowest point. I guess they didn't look so big in the pictures, but, impractical as they are, I like them. I wanted romantic and dramatic, and that's exactly what I got.

Giselle: hot off the needles, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

And after Giselle, the obvious question is what next? The boy sweater is now officially done. I buckled down and finished those little seams, and now it is waiting for a good blocking and some buttons. I still want to knit Print 'O the Wave, but I got side tracked. I broke down and bought a color card for KnitPicks' Shadow, and the color I liked on the internet looked terrible in person, so I am now trying to settle on a color.

Meanwhile, I had always had my eye on Butterfly, ever since I saw Eunny's. I looked into knitting it a long time ago, but the idea of spending roughly $20 for a magazine that I would only use for one pattern just didn't seem worth it. Well I recently stumbled across a book on Knit Picks that has the same pattern. It's roughly the same financial situation, but there's a chance I might knit other things from the same book. And anyway, if I still want to knit it three years later, it's worth knitting.

4000+ words

Knitting: Finished!, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

Goddess: Front, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

Goddess: Weird Gapey Armhole, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

Goddess: Back, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

I took pictures. During daylight. Something must be wrong.

A brief update:

Well, I honestly never(!) thought I would say this, but the knitting on the boy sweater is all finished. (By the way, any knitter can tell you about the sweater curse, so I am pleased to report: we are still quite happily together, and likely will be for a long time to come.) I started weaving in ends and tacking down the seam facings during a lovely little chick flick, and managed to finish all but a few inches on one seam facing and the underarm seams. I have since put off those two items, mostly out of ennui (I have spent so much time knitting (and re-knitting!!) this sweater, I am seriously in need of a little time apart). Which is a little sad, really, because all I have to do is those two little things, and then the blocking (dread!) and the buttons, and, then, dare I say it, it will be finished! This has been such a journey it's a little hard to believe that the end is in sight.

Meanwhile, I've got a few other things hovering around the horizon. I have always itched to make a Print o' the Wave stole, and I just bought this pattern to repurpose the yarn from Goddess, and there's a black shrug I started a year ago that I promised myself I would finish (besides god knows how much more that has been lost in UFO oblivion). I did a little work on the black shrug last night, which was refreshing (no more wool, twisted stitches, or cables, just nice, easy stockinette on small needles), and right now I think I am actually going to finish it before moving on to greener pastures. Meanwhile, since I have been needing to do something with Goddess, and since I have no yarn for Print o' the Wave, Giselle is next in the endless "to knit" line. I should also point out that Giselle is my reward for being good and finishing a UFO. And Print o' the Wave is my reward for finally figuring something out for Goddess. Whatever works, right?

Oh and good news: I finally invested in a ball winder. Of my roommate's two cats, Tony is only interested in my knitting as long as it makes a good bed. But Bear can't stay away from it. It has been heartbreaking to have nice, pretty, factory-wound (or even more depressing - hand-made center-pull) yarn balls, only to come home from work and find a nest of knots. And there is probably very little of the boy sweater that Bear has not played with or chewed on at some point. Part of me feels compelled to point out that Bear has adopted me and the boy, misses us when we are gone, and insists on being held and cuddled. But do not be fooled by this apparently sweet exterior. He is the devil. And the ball winder, besides being very helpful and a big time-saver, is my revenge.

The Devil, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

Edit: The shrug is finished, it is now in the process of being seamed, and the ends are being woven in. Blocking soon. I should also add that I have used the winder a few times now and it works great. Bear likes it too - he chewed on some of the metal parts. Sigh.

And bonus: the devil in action. He was in the middle of kneading the yarn, so it was hard to get a clear picture.

The Devil in action., originally uploaded by rubychan4.

I mentioned a sweater for my boy a long time ago,

and that's what I've mostly been working on. I finished the body and both sleeves up to the underarm, and joined body and sleeves together. I got about two or three inches into the yoke (total yoke depth is seven and a half inches) and ran out of yarn. That's fifteen balls of yarn, 1650 yards, 750 grams, that I've already knit. More yarn is already in the mail, and I'm letting myself rest before making that last mad dash for the finish line.

Meanwhile, a little look at my planning process. Here's the map I made up, complete with calculations (worked and re-worked) and stitch counts, a lot of which I ultimately changed in the final product. I originally intended the steek to be five stitches, but I miscalculated somewhere along the way and rather than re-knit what I had done (which was about two or three inches of the body, a whopping 295 stitches) I repurposed six stitches into the steek. It's now eleven stitches wide, which actually makes me pretty happy, since I have never steeked and I am terrified of cutting into my knitting.

The map, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

And here is the finished, washed, blocked gauge swatch. It looks cleaner, crisper and much better defined than any of the pictures (I'm sorry to say) you are going to see of the sweater.

The boy's sweater swatch, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

Here is the sweater in progress as it is now. It doesn't look like much, but it's well on its way to becoming what the boy asked for. The gauge swatch is included at the bottom for scale.

Front, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

And here is the back.

Back, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

And a close up of the back.

Back/bottom back, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

And, as a special treat, something you probably never thought you would see. A pair of Bayerische socks! I finished that first sock way back in November, and I got to the bottom of the ribbing, started the pattern stitches and realized I had miscalculated somehow and had too few stitches. And that was where it stood, until I started taking it to work with me. Between evenings at home and my breaks at work, I finished the mate in roughly a week. The toe still needs to be grafted shut and the ends need to be woven in, but the lion's share of the work is done.

Gasp TWO Bayerische socks!, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

Well, boys and girls,

Goddess didn't work out like I hoped. The drape wasn't as dramatic as I wanted it to be, the armholes bag out at a weird angle, and it wasn't as broad across the back as I thought it should be. There were parts of the fit that I really liked, and some of the neckline issues could have been solved with a looser tubular cast on (although that would require re-knitting the whole piece), but the reality is that there were some elements that were inherent to the design and they are, ultimately, flat out deal-breakers for me. I intend to take it apart and re-purpose the yarn elsewhere (it is, after all, soft, high-quality cotton in a nice sagey green color) but I lost momentum when I thought of ripping out all those long hours of stockinette. Perhaps another day. Also, a modeled photo to come (so you can see what I'm talking about).

There are other things on my needles, but they have mostly fallen into that abyss of knitting oblivion that, if I'm not careful, just about everything I work on goes to. But that's not why I'm here, and that's not why we're talking.

I've mostly been too busy to knit (between school and work, I'm essentially working two full-time jobs), but the semester is winding down and I'll soon only have work occupying my time (and I'll also have more money). Besides, a close friend asked me to teach her to knit recently, so the factors really came together nicely (a nice pattern sitting in the back of my mind, a fella to knit for, and the time and opportunity to put into it).

I showed Tweed's example of the pattern to my fella when he asked me to make something, and he really liked it. Next, I searched for wool that the boy might deem soft enough, and that would, hopefully, be cheap enough for a knitter on a budget. Knit Picks' Wool of the Andes comes in the right weight, in a color the boy liked, so I bought a ball and knitted up a swatch. It passed all the tests, so I have been working on a new swatch with the cable patterns (almost all of which I have to figure out myself). The charts are unclear in the paper pattern I bought, and the back center cable I'm using doesn't seem to have a chart anywhere in the internet ether. Meanwhile a sweater's worth of yarn is in the mail.

When I started Goddess,

it was with no concrete ideas in terms of the rules I mentioned - mostly because I thought the project itself would slowly present itself with clear segments. Like after a set of short rows, or shaping, or a change in needles. Well, it seems this was a mistake, in its way: with no stopping points, I knit right up to the bottom of the front section.

Goddess - The Front, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

That's about two balls of yarn knit on size US 4 straights (about thirteen inches long!) that any granny would be proud to own.

Well, after all that knitting on Goddess, I could no longer ignore my job application, so I finished it. A few ends still need to be woven in, but it's finished.

Finished knitted job application, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

And then I started on the back. This is up to the bottom of the shoulder shaping.

Goddess - The Back, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

This picture is closest to the actual color.

Time has the uncanny ability

of escaping from me - I wake each morning (to me, the morning begins at around noon) intending to take those pictures I mentioned, and the next time I think of it, the sun has set. But I managed to get it done today, and I'm throwing in a few extras as a bonus.

An appallingly bad picture of the Bayerische sock:

First Bayerische Sock, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

And new buttons on The Sweater:

New Buttons, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

And the new buttons on me:

New Buttons - on me, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

The knitted job application:

Stunt Stitching Test, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

And the new project, knit with most of my first ball of yarn:

Goddess-in-Progress, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

And a detail shot of that border:

Pattern stitch detail, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

My camera seems to be unequal to the task of capturing that color - it's a darker, deeper, cool green. And I should go wind another ball.

A few things

have been going on chez Rubychan, but it seems my attentiveness as a blogger has severely tapered off, and for that, apologies, dear reader. Firstly, I finished the first Bayerische sock (although that was not until the middle of November), and I will take a picture of it tomorrow, in natural light. I don't like the effect of lamps - they add too many shadows and make everything look too yellow. And in case you were wondering, I have started the mate, but I managed to make a mistake right after the ribbing at the cuff and I have not had the patience to go back and fix it. (Admittedly, it could be the work of a short fifteen minutes to sort out the problem; a fifteen minutes I cannot seem to make myself spare.)

Meanwhile, I bought new buttons, mostly inspired by a new pair of pants I bought (in which I loved everything but the buttons and the length - somewhat novel - the buttons have been swapped and I'm in the process of hemming). And while I was at the store, I bought new buttons for The Sweater. The original buttons were always intended to be temporary - the Hudson Valley, I felt, lacked interesting little sewing and knitting shops (at least, based on my limited reach when I was in the area), so I had bought some simple buttons I felt I could live with at JoAnn's, thinking I would replace them when I found a suitable substitute and had the time and energy to do it. It's embarassing to say that it happened over a year later, but I found some lovely shell buttons in that same excursion and swapped them. The added benefit is that the new buttons are larger and stay in the buttonholes much better (the old ones had the habit of popping out), and they hold the garment together better when I wear it, which makes me want to wear it more (and that's a little startling, because it is, after all, The Sweater). Granted, I also lacked the foresight to take pictures of it during daylight, so a picture of The Sweater and the new buttons is forthcoming. I promise.

In other news, I have begun work on a sample for a knitting website to become a stunt stitcher. And by begun work, I mean I have the sample eighty percent finished. The prospect of being paid to knit is just too attractive for me to take this sample too lightly, and my resulting meticulousness has made progress pathetically slow and halting. To be fair, the sample uses techniques I have never used before (the tubular cast-on and cast-off), but I have also screeched to a halt out of my own impatience and frustration.

And in the hope of motivating myself to finish my knitted job application, I bought more yarn today. Not that I need more yarn, or that I don't have enough unfinished projects that need to be resolved, but out of general knitting ennui and impatience. Those unfinished projects will get finished eventually, right? Anyway, I told myself that I could begin a new project (with the new yarn, naturally) only if I finished one row of the sample for every (say, five?) rows of the new. I haven't worked out the details yet, but that's the basic idea. It's like giving a child a reward system - a piece of candy for a good deed - but with knitting, and much more pathetic.

Quote of the Day: "Normally, I would feel uncomfortable taking unmarked drugs from a guy in a sailor suit singing to pudding, but hey, I'm desperate."

I have had the inexpicable itch

to knit socks lately. I don't have anyone to knit socks for, and I don't even want hand-knit socks. I lose my store-bought socks (usually Costco and Target - I really splurge on my socks too) all the time. I've come to think of my dryer as a black hole for clothing, but especially socks. One difficult winter break, I came home with about two weeks worth of socks in my bag, and I went back to school with one pair. (The irony in this, I think, is that while I'm at school, and I, the irresponsible, feckless college student, am the one doing my laundry, I don't lose a single pair.) And I never wear the socks I knit last February (1 and 2). (On a related note, I recently gave one of those pairs of socks to my mother - the ones pictured in 1 - I didn't like the way the toe was done, and I literally never wore them. And she likes them. Score.)

All the same, however, I bought two balls of sock yarn this afternoon (Patons Grace in Azure), swatched this evening, and cast on for Eunny's Bayerische Socks. From the first moment I saw them, it was love, and I have itched to find the right combination of yarn and needles to find the right gauge to knit them. (I recently invested in a pair of size US0 circulars and got gauge with no sweat. It was meant to be.)

I am in something of a twilight zone in my life right now, being that most of the big things haven't been sorted out yet (I don't know where I'll be in six months, for example), and the date is something I only have a vague grasp of. So it was only this evening that I realized that I'm starting these socks right in the middle of Socktoberfest!

I recently heard (from two separate sources, actually) that there was a study where a group of people did a crossword no one had ever done before in a certain amount of time. They didn't do particularly well, as might be expected. But, when they did a crossword that had been in a newspaper a week before (that none of them had done) in the same amount of time, they finished most of it.

Sock knitting is in the air, and it seems I have caught the bug.

ETA:

Bayerische In Progress, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

Oops

Did I say strapless, lacy and fitted? Lelah, that difficult little minx, does not fit. Well, did not. I got caught up in a sudden desire to rip and re-knit her, so now she's a lot of lace and a mess of Top Ramen-looking yarn. The lace blocked beautifully, and my math with the bust darts actually worked out quite well. But the back of the stockinette portion sagged and bagged away from my body. I did no shaping in the back, thinking that it was really my boobs that would require shaping (and I did a lot at the boobs) and I suspect my mistake was not blocking my gauge swatch (I know, I know).

I mentioned a new birthday present to myself, and the knitting went without a hitch, really. It was a lot like a flash in the pan, and the only thing that's kept me from posting about it is that I doubled the amount of waist shaping because I felt the first version fits too loosely in that area. But now, the sweater tap dances that line between too tight and well-fitted, and I thought a good blocking would answer the question to my liking. And, surprise of surprises, I have not had the patience (or, let's face it, the time) to block it.

Quote of the Day: (It's a poem today.)
"God
and I have become
like two giant fat people living
in a tiny
boat.
We
keep bumping into
each other
and
laughing." -Hafiz

See that soggy mess of wool? (Otherwise entitled: Why My Room Smells Of Wet Dog)

Soggy Wool, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

Believe it or not, it will soon be something strapless, something lacy, and something fitted. My godsister came to visit last week, and, to distract myself from the edging of the Dead Elmo Vest, we went to the yarn store, where I found some Cascade 220 in a colorway I liked. I had seen Lelah on Craftster back when it was new, but I can't say it made much of an impression on me. It was really the work of recent Craftsters (1 and 2) that caught my eye and made me consider making it. The knitting was pretty straightforward: the lace was knit on US 5 needles, until the row of eyelets, where I changed to US 2 needles (and increased to accommodate the new gauge). The change of needles was mostly because I didn't want to use small needles for the lace as well, (because it would take forever) and I wanted the stockinette to be dense enough not to be transparent. The pattern was more a set of guidelines than a real pattern, so my choice of smaller needles required no extra thinking.

And the wet dog part: wet wool has the tendency to smell of wet dog. It was definitely disorienting to discover, the first time I blocked wool (I was cheap before, and mostly just used acrylic) and now it's mostly just an annoyance.

I had a little trouble with the bust area. The pattern says to knit the entire section to be the size of the above-bust measurement. Well, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that that measurement would be too small for most of the section, but the pattern uses the fact that knit fabric stretches: the top and bottom of the section would fit exactly, with varying amounts of negative ease in between. Well that's all fine and good, but it seemed like stretching the knitting to fit my boobs would sacrifice the opacity I was looking for. So I added increases and decreases in two darts in the front panel - you can see one set of increases and decreases in that picture (it's just below the needles, and looks like an eye in a tree trunk).

Blocking Lelah, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

Here we have Lelah, all pinned out on my bed. Unfortunately, because we could not share the bed, she exiled me to the futon for the night. I was quite comfortable there, but I have begun to wonder whether it is best for me to accommodate my knitting like that. I soaked and pinned her yesterday afternoon; now, the lace is dry, but the denser knitting - the stockinette - is still a little damp, and the hem, which is four layers of fabric, is still wet. If I may hazard a guess, I would say she will be dry later this afternoon or evening, and she will probably be wearable tomorrow.

In terms of time frame, Lelah went roughly as could be expected: I cast on Wednesday a week ago, and knit with varying levels of intensity through the week. I would definitely say the last two days were the most intense: I knit all but an inch or so of the bust portion, and the lion's share of my time was spent with knitting needles in my hands.

A closer look: Arrowhead lace pattern, originally uploaded by rubychan4.

And here's a (albeit a bit blurry) close-up of the lace pattern.

Those size 5 needles almost immediately went to back to work: this time, on my birthday present to myself. The white Sahara was considered a birthday present to myself, but I like the pattern, and I couldn't really think of another use for that recycled yarn I had originally been using, so I am knitting another Sahara using that yarn. I haven't gotten very far yet: it's only a small strip of stockinette (which is why you won't be seeing it right now), but I'm getting gauge, so I'm happy.

Quote of the Day: "Oh, it's wonderful to be a woman musician, especially when you're a man! And the only thing that holds our strapless dresses up is nerve!"