Well I did it

Well after switching to Team Chocolate, and after much waffling on my part, I finally frogged all the way back to the beginning of the color work and re-did it with the black as the lower (left hand) strand

I am SO glad I did! The lines look so much cleaner now. Who would think it would make that much of a difference? Whew! I'm glad I didn't take it all out for nothing! I'm not sure how well you can tell from the pictures, partly because the before picture is washed out, but trust me, it looks better :)

I know it doesn't look like I've done all that much, but you gotta remember I have knitted it all twice lol. And that I designed that Josephine's Knot myself.

Also, that I had 2 kids with birthday parties and cakes to decorate this week.

And that you cannot do colorwork and watch Survivor at the same time.

I think I've almost mastered knitting with my right hand now, too. I finally figured out how to wrap without letting go of the right hand needle, or feeling like I'm going to drop it. It's still much slower than my left, but it feels like something I can manage.

Woohoo, gold medal here I come!

To knit or frog? That is the question

Well I am making good progress, but I can't decide if it's the way I want it or not.

This project is my first attempt at stranding, so I am trying out some different ways of holding the yarn.

Normally I am a continental knitter, and not a particularly fast one (I think I'm about 33-36 stitches per minute for the really crazy among you who care about such things - I read Elizabeth Zimmermann say she was about 45 and she thought she was not that fast.. ha! that sounds fast to me)

I can hold both yarns in my left hand and pick them each individually, but I find I am having to often let go of them both to readjust them. I can hold one in each hand, and pick the pattern and throw the background. This is also workable, but slow. I'm just not much of a thrower. I guess I need to practice throwing.

I can't decide which method is better at this point.

But here's my dilemma.

I know that you need to carry the background color over and the pattern color under, that's what I've been doing. The problem is I think I should have switched them in this case. I'm afraid what I'm calling my background isn't looking enough like a line.

(excuse the overexposed picture my DH took)

Can you see how the black outline is broken and not that smooth?

Maybe I should make a swatch of the pattern each way (but wah, I don't want to.... and can you make a swatch of just 1 repeat? Do you just pull the yarn back across? ) I definitely would rather frog than finish the project and not be happy with it.

I really can't decide what to do with it. I'm a little more than half way done with the stranding part and then it's an easy project to finish, just plain stockinette.

decisions, decisions...

What needles are you?

You are interchangeable.
Fun, free, and into everything, you've got every eventuality covered and every opportunity just has to be taken. Every fiber is wonderful, and every day is a new beginning. You are good at so many things, it's amazing, but you can easily lose your place and forget to show up. They have row counters for people like you!

What kind of knitting needles are you?
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Hmm I dunno. I don't even like interchangable needles LOL. But the rest of it seems sorta true. Love that yarn, though!

Just for the heck of it

I decided to figure out how many teams I could be on if I wanted to...

There's the obvious



And the advanced


(does anyone else think it should say We Don't Need No STEEKING Patterns? No, maybe not. Just me? Oh well.)


And then of course there's



Gotta have *all* that. hmm

For the indecisive


and since we're Irish (well by marriage)

But


And then there's how I felt after frogging my first design attempt



So many teams, so little time... Wonder what I'll end up with :)

Training

Well my Olympic dreams aren't going like I planned.

First, the aforementioned round blanket isn't finished. I did a few more rows on the ruffle Thursday night, and decided that needing to be done is not a good enough reason to end the ruffle too short, so alas, I put it
away. Fortunately the baby isn't going to join us for a while.

So then, I was doing good. I got yarn and everything. Cascade 220. It's gorgeous. What do you think? The picture doesn't do the colors justice.


So that was all good. But then the Easter Seals place called us and said they had a cancellation for special needs parents night out and we just can't turn that down, so, we found a tape, recorded the Olympics opening ceremonies, and ran out the door.

So, I guess I'm still training, and my event doesn't start until later in the week.


Here is my training (design)
I am pretty impressed with myself. (If I could just find a camera that takes pictures in actual color it would be awesome, but that's another post).

BTW that's a Josephine's Knot I've charted out there (and some other knots I decided not to use). It's in DH's wedding ring, and he declared today that (*if* it turns out looking good), he needs a scarf. Suuuure.


For those who aren't knitters
(or who are but are living under a virtual rock), the Knitting Olympics is a challenge, to knit something new and/or difficult for you *personally* to completely, in the 16 days when the Olympic flame is lit. I being one who cannot resist a challenge, obviously am participating.

I am making longies for my son, with a fair isle pattern. This is another attempt by me to learn how to knit with both hands. I've tried it before, with not much success, and haven't tried in many years.

And in case you think I'm off my rocker, there are almost 4000 other people doing this, so at least I'm not the only nut case.

Have you seen any UFOs?

Welcome to the very first post of my new blog. I've finally caved in joined the crowd.

Right now I have in many projects in various forms of completion...

Unfinished Objects:

A scarf with corkscrew fringe. Made with Angel Hair yarn, in Berry . I made my sister one for Christmas in Black/White Multi and loved it so much I wanted to make myself one. For some reason I never seem to finish the stuff I'm making for myself. It is just seed stich, nothing too fancy, I wanted the yarn to be the star. This yarn is SOOO soft.

A baby lemon hat for a friend having a baby who she calls Lemondrop. I need to re-shape the top and add leaves and stem.

The second of a pair of cable ribbing socks that has been in my purse for about 6 months. This yarn is beautiful, it just looks brown in the pic but it has flecks of many colors in it, very subtle and cool.

A ladybug sweater I made my daughter that is 90 percent done and if I don't hurry up it won't fit her when I finally finish the embroidery.

This shell that I made last spring, out of Microspun, and a my own design. I love it but decided the ribbing on the arm holes could be longer so I frogged some of that and need to reknit it.

And a round baby blanket. This poor blanket has had a sorry life.

It was inspired by a friend, who was having her first girl after 3 boys, and who had been coveting a round baby blanket belonging to another friend.

Then she decided to ban me from her board because of something stupid, so of course I stuffed the yarn in a corner where it sat, mocking me, for months.

Well I found out about a month ago that one of my oldest friends ever from New York is having a girl, so hurray! I get to make the round blanket :) And it really is too beautiful to be resented. It's not the blanket's fault.

Right now I am stuck in ruffle hell. I decided the thing NEEDED a ruffle. (It really does.) And the heavy yarn the blanket is made of (Lion Homespun) made too chunky of a ruffle, so I switched to a fingering weight pink yarn and quadrupled the stitches. So, now there are a bit more than 2000 stitches of 1x1 ribbing per round (ack!)

I am trying desperately to finish the poor thing before the Knitting Olympics. Which, I don't even have yarn for and, um, it's tomorrow. yikes! The rest of my UFOs will have to wait until the Olympics are over.

Wish me luck!

Edited to add:
Check out my new trackers on the sidebar to keep track of my progress