One By One

And I knit too!

In between the sewing and stash enhancing, I've been plugging away at two wips:

Betty! I'm still not enjoying the stitch pattern, I think it is pretty monotonous. BUT - the reversible ribbing is really kinda neat.

And let's not forget...

My Zebra Jaywalkers! The second sock is coming along quite nicely. I am a couple of rows into the foot portion of the pattern. I've included the completed first sock for comparison's sake :)

And tonight is knit-night with the girls! I hope to get a bit more done on the sock and start the Short 'n Sweet Cardigan from Happy Hooker (yes, I'm crossing over to crochet - with the help of Kris of course!). This cardigan is going to fulfill the #7 goal for the month of May - even though it's not technically a stash-busting project because new yarn was purchased for it - but hey, I'm entitled to revise my goals slightly, right? :)

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

Every once in a while, I have one of those, you know, blonde moments. I had one of these on Thursday. Remember how I wanted to swatch for Jaywalkers during knit-night? Well, it's kinda hard to do that if you leave the yarn AT HOME! I was so disappointed! So, instead, I worked on Andy's sweater as well as Betty:

Only about two inches into the back piece. This one is definitely going to be a slow-mover.

So, over the weekend, I was determined to start those socks! Isn't the yarn pretty??

So, I swatched away... on the zero's and two's Miyon gave me on Thursday. And, well, my gauge was off - way off - I think it's probably the yarn :) Anyway - I wasn't getting enough stitches per four inches (I was getting 29 instead of 31), and the thought of knitting socks on double zero's is just frightening to me! So, I did a little math and cast on a multiple of eight less than the smallest size. Since the larger size is a multiple of eight bigger than the smallest size, I think that if I decrease it by a multiple of eight on the cast on and decrease the pattern accordingly throughout by the proper multiple (sometimes two, sometimes four) I will be alright. (What do you all you expert sock knitters think?) So, after working on it for a bit:

Houston - we have the ribbing done and have started the zig-zag pattern! I think after a couple more inches I'll give it a try-on... just to make sure it fits properly.

The rest of the weekend was good. Saturday DH and I went to the movies - saw Failure to Launch. It was a really cute and entertaining movie - I recommend it for anytime you just want to see a fun movie! We also spent some home-time together and watched a few episodes from the Sports Night DVDs we borrowed from the SIL (what a great show - I'm so sad it was canceled after only two seasons!) Yesterday DH had to work all day, so I worked on his sweater :)

Yep - the middle panel is done on the front piece! Woohoo! I hope to get the three pieces connected and have the front piece completely done this week.... and get one of those sleeves started!

Old and New

Last night was knitting night with Kris and Miyon. I plugged away at Andy's sweater - Just about 7" in on the center front piece:

And, in the new, I received the yarn for Betty - I'm knitting this one by request of my SIL. The yarn is soft and beautiful and....

DARK! Going from black to this... boy oh boy. I did some swatching this week and discovered that pattern printers/makers/designers need to be more specific. The first row of the pattern repeats goes something like this: "inc. one in each stitch." Yes, that's it. No "M1" or "kf&b" or "pf&b" or anything else! (it's a ribbed pattern, hence the purl) And, no further direction in the abbreviation meanings section. Could not find another blogger who has made this garment (please share if you know one), no corrections on Rowan's website. Argh!

So, many swatches were made (in a lighter color yarn!), using different technique combinations. Since the fabric is supposed to be reversible, it was determined that the technique for obtaining this was kf&b of each stitch (bolded in case there is someone out there who has the same question). I'm concerned about the future seaming due to the ribbed pattern, so I think for the back piece (the piece I'll start when the needles I ordered get here) I'm going to add a K1 to each end. I'll have to do a bit more thinking when it comes to the front pieces, but, what do you think?