Catch up!

I'm not quite sure what I've been doing with my time so far in 2006, but it's not been a whole lot of knitting. I've gotten some things done, but not tons yet this year.

First off, the argyle socks are officially stalled. While I love the way they are coming out, this isn't a pattern that's conducive to knitting in public or in front of the TV, so I've not been doing much on these. I think I've knitted 2 rows on them since the beginning of the year.



At least the back looks nice:



So, in the meantime, in order to have a good bar knitting project, I started a new pair of socks. I'm using the KnitPicks Simple Stripes my secret pal got me, and decided on the Rib and Cable socks from Interweave Knits. Problem is, I don't think that the faux fair isle of this yarn will look very good with the cables, so I will probably just keep up the ribbing for the cuffs, then do the foot in regular old stockinette.

It's a really stretchy rib. People keep asking me if I'm knitting baby socks because of how small the sock looks (those are 5" needles)



And then I stretch it out and say, "No, they're for me." Magic!



The one thing I've made a fair amount of progress on is the Skacel circular sweater. I have the front, back and one sleeve done. No thanks to my pattern reading ability. I thought I had the whole sleeve finished at Stitch n' Bitch the other night, but when I went to start the raglan decreases, I had half of the stitches I should have. Seems I neglected a whole sentence about 6" in and kept decreasing when I should have been increasing. So I frogged that back and fixed it, and finished the sleeve while watching Project Runway. So now I have a little pile of bulky sweater pieces growing:



I think the front and back look like turtle shells. Partially because of the color, which I'm just in love with. It's called "Gooseberry," leading me to believe those bushes we had in our backyard when I was little really were gooseberries -- they were exactly that color.

This is definitely going to be a slouchy, weekend comfy sweater. Get a load of this artsy shot showing how long the sleeve is:



No need for gloves at all!

I did embark on a stash expedition last night. I had a yarnmarket.com gift certificate from my mom and dad for Christmas, and I was itching to spend it. And I've fallen in love with this pattern from the new Vogue Knitting:



I know, I know, it's 80s looking, and has crochet. But I think, made a little bit shorter, it would look incredible over jeans and boots. Problem is, the amount of yarn it calls for is exhorbitant, so I was going to have to spend well over the amount of the gift certificate. So I ended up spending 3 hours in front of the computer, with all my recent magazines and four or five knitting books trying to get the most bang for my buck. I ended up with Cotton Glace to do the sleeveless Victorian top from the holiday VK, and some Crystal Palace Kid Merino Solid for the Angelina jacket from White Lies. I think I may even be able to wear these together! Thanks mom and dad!

Hopefully this weekend will be productive and the next post will be the circular sweater, all finished up!