Finally finished!

Ta-da! Finished Flax. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. It's a nice warm sweater, the fit is good and the colour looks great on the 4yr old.

This picture is not the greatest-taken on my cell phone (which usually takes better pictures than this) but the 4yr old was not being super cooperative about posing either-though he likes his sweater very much! But this gives an idea of the fit, where the first picture shows you the actual colour.

Recently I ordered some yarn. And by some, I mean 3 sweaters worth. I ordered some Wool of the Andes and Swish Worsted from Knitpicks and Valley Yarns Stockbridge from WEBS. I've only knit with Swish Bulky before and I did like it very much.  I don't actually have projects in mind, just a vague inkling of sweaters from "Fit to Flatter" by Amy Herzog. Plus I still need to find a hat pattern for my mom. I'll get on that tomorrow, and hopefully cast on by the evening.

Will we ever see the end of Flax?

I'm still not finished Flax.
I feel like I should have finished this sweater like, a week ago.
Why is that?  Why am I putting pressure on myself? It's a hobby! I'm not getting paid, nor do I have people waiting on me to finish this project (the 4yr old does not care how long I take to knit). I'm not a competitive knitter, I'm not doing a KAL. So why do I stress over how long it takes me to knit something?
Anyway, the sweater is going slowly. Not sure why, the first Flax I made, flew off the needles.

Made it with MadelineTosh Vintage in Betty Drapers Blues. So so pretty. I had bought two skeins, on sale at my lys months back, just because I loved the colour. It's not a colour I wear. BUT it was on SALE (irresistible)  I was stumped as to what to make with the yarn until I came across Flax.
I messed up the garter panel on the arms-instead of garter, it's reverse stockinette. I noticed when I was almost finished the first arm but I did not want to frog (lazy) and figured blocking would take care of the issue. It mostly has, but you can really see the difference when you look at the bebeflax and the 4yr old's flax-in-progress.
That reminds me, I need to find a bebe to wear bebeflax. Hrm. I do not currently know any small babies, nor do I know anyone currently growing a baby (except for my downstairs neighbor but she's having a girl, and seems like the type of person who only wants pink for her precious princess)

Back to Flax. I'm on the first sleeve, second decrease. Close to finishing. Did get a few inches done in the car on the way to Ikea yesterday.  It was all well and good, roads were a little slippery though. Which got me thinking about car accidents. Which got me thinking about car accidents with dpns...and the possibility of punctured organs, or losing an eye (even though I wear glasses, this is still a possibility). Didn't stop from me from actually knitting in the car. I did end up wasting a couple of hours googling knitting+car accidents. (time spent googling, I could have actually been knitting).

Will my somewhat sharp US8 Knitter's Pride dpns PUNCTURE MY LUNGS? Maybe. Will I stop knitting in the car? Not likely. Especially when on the way to Ikea-it's so far!

sick.

I have not been knitting much, fell down with some kind of plague that has had me exhausted. Any spare moment was spent laying down and dozing. So much dozing.

 Last Thursday, I went to the clinic because I had a UTI. I'd like to blame this plague on being in a waiting room full of sick people, but the reality is that I had a mildly sore throat and swollen glands already.  I did knit quite a bit while in the waiting room (and taking public transportation to and fro). I was knitting Flax for the 4yr old and managed to put what will be the sleeves on waste yarn and knit about an inch under the armpit. Since then, I've only managed another 7 inches of body. So, I have another inch to go before I switch to smaller needles and do the ribbing. Then the arms need to be knit-but they should knit up fairly quickly.

I may not work on the sleeves right away, my mom asked me to knit her a hat...even though she hates hats and won't wear it very often.  She has no requests beyond making it white and slouchy. I have a couple of patterns for lacy slouchy hats that I love, but she wants a hat for really cold days, lace kind of defeats the purpose of hat for warmth. Guess I'll scour Ravelry for just the right hat. I won't even have to buy any yarn, I have some white cascade 220 just lying around.

Eta: pictures!

intro

 Purl Purl Knit-because every other knitting related name I wanted to use was taken!

I don't know how long this blog will last. This is my 9th blog (maybe 10th) When it comes to blogs, I have start-itis.  I didn't used to be so blog-flighty! in fact, I used to blog regularly on Livejournal. I had a livejournal for years, 4 or 5 years I think. A failing marriage and the perception that comments on mutual friends ljs were aimed at me, made me abandon ship. I attempted to keep a blog on Myspace. But, honestly, myspace kind of sucked.  Then there were a few attempts at other blog sites and  a return to livejournal for a little while. None of them stuck.
 This is Blogger blog #2. I'm starting a new blog that I will focus on knitting.  I suspect my facebook friends are getting sick of my posts about knitting and pictures of finished objects. I am a member of ravelry, and do read their forums, but I rarely use their projects page.

So, on to the knitting! I am currently knitting "Flax" by Tincanknits  It's a top down raglan in ALL THE SIZES! really, so many sizes. It's pretty frigging awesome and they rock, not just a great pattern for learning how to knit a top down raglan (as I am) but it's also free! I'm using Juniper Moon Farm-Chadwick (in Mississippi mud) it's 60% merino and 40% baby alpaca . It's sooo lovely and squooshy. And I suspect it's going to pill terribly (if my short lived love affair with Malabrigo worsted taught me anything). I bought it months ago, on sale from WEBS. This sweater will be for my 4yr old, so if it pills a little (or a lot) meh, who cares? I think I'm more of a process knitter anyway.
This will be my second "Flax". I made the smallest size using some Madelinetosh Vintage (<3) that I had laying around. I bought the Vintage at a LYS when it was on sale (60% off!! why didn't I buy more??) but I only bought 2 skeins, in a colour I don't even wear (it's pretty though-Betty Draper's Blues) . Back to the sweater- I didn't realize until 3/4 done the 2nd sleeve that the garter panel wasn't actually a garter panel-it was  reverse stockinette. I finished the sleeve, continuing my mistake because I'm basically lazy and even though the stockinette of the sleeve was curling in on the garter panel (or in my case, reverse stockinette *sigh*), I figured I could block it straight (yay for blocking).
It's a lovely little sweater and wish I knew a 6month old I could put the sweater on. I want to see how it looks!
So yes, Flax for my 4yr old-knitting the sleeves properly this time. I hope.I haven't actually started the sleeves yet-I cast on yesterday and did the ribbing and started the set up round so there is still a ways to go before sleeves!