Sheep, Myrna and needles!

Browsing on reddit last sunday morning, I came across the cutest thing- so cute I squee'ed out loud. someone had made a mobile! The cutest mobile ever; little knitted sheep and  fence posts that were made from popsicle sticks that had been stained. Just super adorable. I knew I had to make some sheep. Sheep needed to be made. On to Ravelry to spend an hour looking at sheep patterns. Decided on Moss the Sheep by Amanda Berry (which happened to be the pattern the person who made the mobile used iirc)
It is a very easy pattern to follow, comes in two sizes and I did not mind paying for this pattern one bit.
Look at my wee sheep!

 Sheep next to fattycat for scale

Sheep with other knitted toys

If I could find a free llama pattern, my life would be complete. 


After the sheep, I was able to return to Myrna.
I'm really enjoying the construction of this cardy. I've been following the pattern the way it's written so that's a change for me. Generally, when I make cardies, I knit the front pieces first or the sleeves (using those as my gauge swatch-and figuring blocking will help me when finished haha). I'm knitting Myrna on my interchangeables, which is convenient when it comes to putting stitches on hold, I just take the needle tips off the cord, cap the ends, get a new cord and go!
Some pictures of Myrna in progress.
Back on hold:

 Back and right upper front on hold:

 Back and Front on hold...accidental fallopian tubes!

It's coming along nicely...I did have some issues with the shaping at the left arm. I was off a couple of stitches and realized I had a series of increases that I missed and I had to tink back 6 rows. Argh. I've been watching a lot of documentaries lately, and when I made the mistake I was watching Thin (2006) It was so engrossing, i'm surprised I didn't mess things up worse!


Needles:
Knitpicks was the first online knitting store I discovered. Up until then I had been using my grandmothers's old metal needles, or the cheaply made bamboo needles from walmart that were not making my knitting any easier, so I took to the internets! Not just for purchasing but to get an idea of what everyone else used.  I thought the Harmony needles were so very lovely. I asked for and received  a set of straights for xmas. I liked how sharp the points were compared to those cheapy walmart needles, butthey were so long they were hard to knit with. I used to stick the ends under my armpits, which was fairly uncomfortable.
Once, after knitting a big piece on a long straight needle and feeling like it was taking a long time, and being hard on my wrists and shoulders, I got the brilliant idea to move the piece (i think i was knitting a pillow?) to some cheapy circs and knit as if the circs were straight.The cord actually seemed to take some weight off the project and my wrists and shouders didn't hurt anymore!  But the cheapy circs had terribly blunt points and the cord kept popping off. Back to the knitpicks site to look into their circulars . And it was then that I discovered interchangeables! it was like an epiphany. Buy the tips I need, a couple of cords and no need to buy anymore straights, or the many different sized fixed circulars with their many different length cords. Over a couple of years, I've purchased (and had some purchased as gifts) all the sizes of interchangeable tips-I now have a full set plus a couple of doubles (in the sizes I use most) I have some Sunstruck, some Harmony (before they were made in China) and a couple of the Caspians (too pretty to resist) but I also have some interchangeable tips made by Knitters Pride as they are interchangeable interchangeables (hahaha).  I've read on a couple of forums that people have had problems with the knitpicks interchangeables, but I've been lucky with mine. I love them, and they are all I knit with now.  Unless of course, I'm knitting small items in the round, then I prefer DPNS.

Now off to bed!