It's all Annie's Fault! ! ! ! !

I definitely didn't need to buy more yarn but I like the pattern for Tuja in Dalegarn #116 so ordered Debbie Bliss's Cashmerino Aran in the Raspberry color. I was told it would take at least 2 weeks for my LYS to get the yarn in. They had 10 skeins in the store but I need 13 and I didn't want to take the chance of not getting the same dye lot.... so I wait.

In the mean time, I read on one of the knitting lists about a metal sweater stretcher from The Vermont Country Store. What do you all think? No where near as expensive as a regular wooly board. It's just something that I'm thinking about getting.

I'm busy knitting on Hovedoen. 312 stitches each round sure does take a lot of time to complete so, I've actually only knitted 6 rounds today. ::sigh:: I'm not really the fastest knitter... but that was with interruptions. heheeh Such is life!

Not the best picture but I don't know how to take it without pinning it down to the chair. heheeh. The bottom edge curls. Sure hope that will straighten out when the hem is folded under.

The holes you see are the Picot hem... or it will be once the hem is folded under. :) What look like holes at the bottom edge are actually pins holding the edge down for the picture. From this point on, the pattern stitch starts and works up till you start the chest pattern.

I'll be checking measurements here since I'm only 4' 11.5" and I don't want the top to wind up being way too long for me. From the original picture, I think it will be fine but I'll just have to wait and see.

Annie!!! You are tempting me with Tuja! AARRGGHHH. heheehheeh Will have to see how much the yarn actually is going to cost to see if the bank account can afford it. Ooohhh, it's so tempting!

Every knitter should have their own sheep!

Okay... mine are stuffed but they do keep me company along with my dragon collection.

No knitting pictures tonight since the body of Hovedoen is 312 stitches and I've only done 16 rounds of the dark purple. heheeh Not much to look at there yet.

Aarrgghhhhhhh, There's a knit along that I would like to join... but I don't really need to buy more yarn, honest, I don't! It's another Dale sweater but one that doesn't have color work but I still like the look of it. It's the Tuja sweater from Dalegarn 116. The sponsor site is The Knitty Gritty and you can see the Tuja Along button on the sidebar of her blog.

I like Kerstin's choice of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran. I got to pet it at my LYS the other day and it comes in a raspberry color that I really like aarrggghhh hehehehehehe There is no way I'll have Hovedoen done by their February start date. ::sigh::

Stay warm and keep those needles moving!

No pictures due to illness.... mine. I do NOT make a good sick person. Being sick is a waste of a good weekend off from work! ::whine:: I did a few rounds on the body of Hovedoen, though so all was not lost... though, I did drop about 10 stitches with one huge sneeze.

Thank you to everyone who stops by to check my Blog! Don't forget to leave a comment occasionally! I love hearing from you.

There! Finished the 30 rows I had to frog and am now moving forward. Here's a nice picture showing the stitch pattern of the solid color part of the sweater.

I've had some great and very easy suggestions on how to make my sleeves shorter since my arms are fairly short. I just have to get this sleeve close to being finished then cast on and work part of the body of the sweater so I can get those measurements. :) Currently, the sleeve is only a little over 9.5 inches long so I have a bit more to knit before I need to stop and start the body.

We had just a touch of snow yesterday. We need more! The mountains got a lot more than we did in the foot hills so the skiers will be happy. Supposed to have a stronger storm today but it's going south of us... whine... I love to knit while it's snowing outside! That always seems extra relaxing.

aarrggghhh, ::grumble grumble:: No picture tonight... I had one that showed the stitch pattern and, when I looked closely at it, I found a big mistake... one that required me to frog about 35 rows of work. ::sigh:: Oh well, it's all frogged and I'm ready to start moving back forward. I think I'll blame the mistake on the cold and my coughing... made me lose my place in the pattern... yup.. that's a good excuse. :)

whine... grumble grumble

And how was your day?

Just a quick note before heading off to bed... here is what I got done today. It's not the best picture but you sorta can see the stitch pattern that is appearing in the white part of the sleeve. I'm really enjoying knitting this sweater! Now, if only I could knit faster! I have so many other sweaters I want to knit.

So little time, so many projects to make.

As promised... more of the sleeve. I've started the textured stitching though I don't think you can see it up near the needles. I've only done a few rows of it so far.

After I get near the top of the textured stitching, I'll probably start on the body. The reason for that is because I'm short and have short arms and worry that the arms of this sweater will be too long. This sweater has drop shoulders so I have no idea where to actually measure the length of the sleeve to.

If any of you have any suggestions, please let me know!

Okay, here is the start of my first sleeve on Hovedoen. The two color went very well but then white got added in and I was doing three color.. aarrgghh. hehehehe Nothing like being a glutton for punishment for my first official colorwork sweater. I've done two color work before on a pair of socks, but this is much more complicated.

I do hope I'm up to this task. I love the color and the pattern.

The Roundtrip sweater goes off to my boss tomorrow. #1 I hope it fits and #2 I hope she likes it!

Happy knitting, everyone!

My first Roundtrip is done, ends woven in and it is now pinned and drying on the blocking thing that I made....definitely nothing fancy but it seems to be working.

I want it to hurry up and dry!! hehehehe

Now, on to my next projects. I've been told that it's high time that I made something for myself but I still have the stockings to make for my friend who made my MidWinter dress... Actually, I can do two projects at a time since, if I do decide to make the Dale Hovedoen pattern, it will not be something that can travel well since it will be two color knitting. The stockings will travel well, though.

Now, I have to decide if I want to make the Dale Hovedoen or do a Roundtrip jacket for me. HHuummmm.

The colors I will use for the Hovedoen are the white main color with dark purple in place of the black in the design and lilac for the light gray. The colors look so good in the skeins!

What is everyone's suggestion? Please use my comments to let me know!

Yes, I'm still knitting... the progress just isn't that exciting to take a picture of so here is one of the back of my Mid-Winter dress. I was hoping they would show up better but the back has columns of beads all hand sewn.


















This is the sleeve of the under dress. Hand beaded as well.


















Here is a picture of the hem of the under dress of my MidWinter dress. My friend's sewing is totally amazing and she loves doing fancy things that really dress things up.

On the knitting front, I'm very close to finishing the sleeve of Roundtrip. About 25 more rounds to do then I can do the cuffs!!! What next?? Queen Elizabeth I stockings for the woman who made my wonderful MidWinter dress and possibly Hovedoen by Dale for me.... will just have to see how things work out time wise!

Well, didn't get as much knitting done as I wanted because I spent New Year's Day with friends and had a blast then actually put together the two drawer file cabinet you see on the very left of the picture. Then I cleaned up part of my computer room and got the cabinet installed and loaded... printer paper in the bottom drawar and cd's and dvd's in the top drawer. Scanner on the desk and cpu on the far right up on the little shelf.

I'm working this weekend so who knows what knitting I'll feel like doing but, after getting that part of my computer room straightned up, I accomplished a lot. Next project for my days off..... sort through the stuff on the rest of the desk so it looks as good and then start on the closet aaarrrggghhh..... oh, and knit, of course. :)

I hope everyone's 2004 is starting off with tons of knitting and happiness!