I washed and blocked my Anhinga so I can really truly declare it done now. I'm happy with it but I still might put in a stitch or two to hold the tuck in place. I do think washing it helped that. We'll see how it wears.
So now that my daily posting is done I have decided that I should still post on some kind of schedule. My original plan was Monday, Wednesday, Friday and sometimes the first idea is the best so we're going with that.
The only problem with this plan is that this week I have been sicker than I can ever remember being and I haven't been knitting at all since my last post. Well, that's not true, I knit a few rows just now before I started this post. My first sleeve needs about three more inches. I might try to finish that tonight. I'm trying to decide if I push through and try to finish this thing soon or if I'm going to try to do some gift knitting this holiday. I'm leaning towards no holiday knitting this year, unfortunately.
Is that exciting? Aren't you glad I'm posting on a regular basis? I promise the next one will be better.
Well, this is as far as I got in my NaNoSweMo goal.
I'm holding the sides of the sweater down because left to its own devices the front panel poofs out which is not good. I'm going to have to try to block that out of it, maybe with an iron. If that doesn't work I might actually tack it down so that it's more like a pleat. We'll see.
Tomorrow is the last day of November. I'm kind of glad and sad. Sad because I didn't reach my sweater goal but glad because the daily posting was starting to get to me. I do want to post more regularly on my blog though, and I like how "having" to post made me post about things I might not normally have, like my "Why do I knit?" post.
I woke up feeling less sick today and was going to try to at least finish one sleeve on my sweater but then my husband went back to bed shortly after I got up and the kids foiled my plan. Poor Stefan is mostly better but still not 100% clearly and Niels took a nap this afternoon which hasn't happened in, I don't know, forever.
So, farewell November. It was nice knowing you. Of course, I have to post tomorrow too!
Here I am, breezing along in my sweater, posting daily and then I suddenly realized today that if I want to finish this sweater in the month of November, I have three days to do it!
Oh.
Crap.
I think it's safe to say that isn't going to happen. My NaNoSweMo will have to be like National Gluttony Month (the time from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day): 6 weeks long.
The first sleeve is about halfway down my bicep right now. I tried it on a little while ago because I was afraid it was going to be bunchy under the arm but it looks great. Onward and sleeveward!
It's always exciting when a sweater reaches a point when it becomes something that can be put on. Today my sweater became a vest.
I wove with the kids at school again today. They didn't seem as fast as last week. One of the other moms and I may have come up with a way to help the warp on the Beka looms stay tighter. I think it helped the kids a bit. I have a couple of weeks off before we weave again so hopefully I'll get my act together and rewarp the looms in advance. I'd actually like to try warping my loom for Niels and seeing if he can do it. He was really interested in it.
I have had a kid-intensive week, with a field trip and Arts Focus and tomorrow I'm working in the preschool to pay someone back for covering for me so it was good to get out tonight to BobaKnit. Those BobaKnitters know how to make me laugh. Hannah especially. ❤ you, Hannah!
Both front pieces of my sweater are now done! I am ready to start the top of the back. I think I'm pretty on track to finish this thing by the end of the month! Although, that front middle piece is pretty big so maybe I shouldn't get ahead of myself. Since it's all still on one circular needle it's kind of hard to photograph, but hopefully you can get the idea from this picture.
I'm pleased with it so far. I look forward to the back being done so I can sort of try it on. Right now that's impossible unless I put parts on waste yarn or another needle and that seems like too much work.
I had a post in my head for yesterday, and I even took a picture to go with it of my fake seam in progress.
The fake seam is in the middle of the underarm bind off and the seam went in smoothly but for some reason I miscalculated several times how many stitches to bind off and how they should be divided between the fronts and the back. It started because I was working on it too late at night and somehow it just escalated. Three tries later, I had the number of stitches I wanted bound off (22) and they were divided as I wanted them (10 from the back, 11 from the front and the 1 seam stitch) and I started the left front. I love the fronts of a sweater like this because it's decreasing fairly rapidly and it just goes faster and faster. I'll probably do the right front immediately because it's so fast and satisfying but also so I don't forget what I did on the left. The final advantage will be that if I do the two fronts first when I finish the back I'll be ready to attach the shoulders. I'm doing to do a three needle bind off, I think. I am a fan of the three needle bind off even for shoulder seams. I know others feel that's not strong enough.
I'm getting ahead of myself, though. Before any of this can happen I need to finish off the two woven pieces on the Beka looms and rewarp. The cricket still has a bit of warp left on it so I'm not going to rewarp it yet. We have three more weeks so after this coming Thursday I'll rewarp it with a bit of a longer warp. I'm torn about the Bekas. I'm tempted to just warp them with the same length and let each kid do a bit less so that the end result is pieces that are about the same length. We'll see, though.
I almost forgot to post today! I knit on my anhinga and after several attempts I got the right number and configuration of stitches bound off for the underarms. I'm making great progress. I'm also posting this from my phone while laying in bed. Isn't technology grand?
I think the silly names for H1N1 are pretty entertaining: hamthrax, aporkalypse, etc. However, six of Niels' classmates and his teacher were all out today with possible swine flu so I'm not laughing anymore. I really don't want it to go through my house. It feels inevitable at this point, though. One of his classmates' mother is a pediatrician and she told me I don't have to panic but she didn't give me much hope that we'd dodge it. Boo.
Anyway, I'm not thinking about swine flu tonight, I'm just working on my sweater and watching TV on Hulu. I love Hulu.
the sheep free knitter 