Thursday, January 17, 2013

Breaking News


I have two exciting developments to share with you today!  Are you excited?  I knew you would be!

First, I’ll show you a picture of The Husband’s sweater, a post-Christmas WIP:


What’s so exciting about that?  Not much really, I’ve just finished the bottom ribbing and begun the long process of knitting up the body in what the pattern refers to as “double seed stitch” which has caused me to decide that this sweater will take one day longer than forever to finish since nearly the entire thing is done in that stitch.  “Oh seed stitch, why must you look so nice but be such a pain?”  But look closely at the picture.  You see that bright line cutting across the upper right portion of the photo?  Do you know what that is? 

IT’S SUNSHINE!!!

Yes, that’s right, I’m this excited over sunshine!  Why, you ask?  Because in the normally sunny South where I live, we have endured over a week of gray skies and gloomy weather.  Weather that had not only sapped any hint of productivity and motivation out of me, but weather that tends to make me at best, extremely grumpy, and at worst, homicidal.  But not today!!  Today the glorious sunshine has returned!  This is not only good news for me personally, but also for anyone who has to deal with me on a regular basis and who may or may not be in therapy due to their interactions with me this last week.  Hurray!

The second development is an actual knitting miracle.  Here, look what I did:

It's a *sniff* knitting miracle!

This, dear knitty friends, is the start of an actual baby hat and it’s on…you guessed it…DPNs!!!  I know, I know!  I previously swore to you all that DPNs were of the devil but I have re-evaluated my stance on them.  Having obtained some DPNs made from wood and some made from bamboo, and having given them another chance, I discovered that only metal DPNs (the type I initially tried) are of the devil.  Seriously, I can’t believe the difference it made to work with non-metal DPNs.  I normally prefer metal needles – LOVE my Addi Turbo Clicks – but for DPNs, metal is a bad, bad thing (picture an hour spent with yarn constantly slipping off the needles before any actual knitting took place).  Okay, I suppose if you’re one of the seven knitting wonders of the world, metal DPNs are a walk in the park but for me, not so much.  So I am absolutely thrilled that I gave them another chance, thanks in part to Marilyn from the shop and Kristie, my blogging friend – you ladies inspire me!  And since I have so many tiny little baby things in my queue to knit, I am ready!  Bring. It. On.

The hat pattern I’m cutting my DPN teeth on is called Baby Hat in Little Basketweave by Lenore English.  It looked simple but still cute and while I don’t have the multi-colored yarn she used in the pattern picture, I am using Sirdar Snuggly DK which is kinda tweedy/speckled (whatever you call it), as you can see, and is going to look adorable.  I’d have made more progress on it but when The Husband returned home from work yesterday he commented with just a slight hint of sarcasm that it didn’t appear that I was working on his sweater.  Such pressure…

Have a happy, sunny, yarny day!

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13 comments:

  1. Squeee!! That baby yarn is so cute! I'm excited to see the finished product. :)

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  2. Happy crying that sunshine exists! And metal DPNs are the devil. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying and you shouldn't associate with them anyway. I'm a magic looper, all the way!

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    1. I have never done magic loop, although I usually do two circulars for my sleeves. I'll have to try it sometime!

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  3. A friend of mine recently knit that pattern your using for your husband's sweater, and it turned out BEAUTIFULLY! It will be worth all that annoying seed stitch.

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    1. Yay! I'm going to come back and refer to this comment whenever I feel like it will never end!

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  4. I bet the sweater will turn out lovely if you can just slog through all that seed stitch. You can think of it this way: it isn't any worse than 1x1 ribbing.

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  5. I think you must love him very much to do a seed stitch jumper. I've just finished a difficult jumper for my grown-up daughter and don't think I will knit anything that size for a long time. Luckily she chose the pattern and loves it.

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    1. I do love him very much! Besides, I have to keep him happy so he'll keep me in yarn! : )

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  7. Ha! It is another whipped cream/Shirley MacLaine moment. :-)

    Seriously, if I had known it was metal double pointed needles you had tried to knit with I would have understood your initial aversion. They can be a nasty piece of work!

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    1. Right?!? : )

      Yes, unfortunately I tried the metal DPNs early in my knitting journey and without consultation with anyone who knew what to recommend. Won't make that mistake again!

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