Plomo Pixie Dust

     I'm not sure if this is January blahs or that it was because I was coming down with a cold but this week has been loooong. I've been lethargic and meh. I'm on the baking squad for school fundraisers and had volunteered to make 2 dozen mini chocolate chip banana breads for the bake sale. They needed to be at the school Thursday morning, I really regretted offering to bake. Mashing the bananas was literally exhausting. Getting out of bed has been very difficult this week.
     Last night I went to bed at 8:30, and woke up with definite cold symptoms: sore throat and runny nose. At least B has a ped day today.  I still had to wake up early to get the teens up and out the door (am I the only mom of teens who gets permission slips that were supposed to be returned to school the DAY BEFORE?)

I only have one finished object this week-B's mitts. Just a very simple mitten pattern-can't remember where I found it, it was written down in my notebook and not printed out. I used some black Malabrigo worsted which is soft and warm and yummy.

I'd love a sweater made in Malabrigo worsted...it would feel so good...but it would pill so so terribly. I can't, knowing what I know now, spend all that money on a sweater quantity of MalWorsted.

Speaking of Malabrigo, I'm still working on my Plomo Sweater using Malabrigo Rios. I've not made anything with Rios before, so making a whole sweater is a real leap of faith-I have no idea how it's going to wear, but so far it has been working up very nicely.  Rios reminds me of a softer MadTosh Vintage; and if it holds up anywhere near as well as Vintage I'll be thrilled!
 Anyway, I wasn't making much headway, maybe finding it a little boring with all the stockinette, and was looking up sweaters on Ravelry (instead of knitting the one already on my needles). Particularly patterns with lacy panels and there wasn't anything that really caught my eye. I decided to make my own panel! Now, I couldn't do one on the back or the front because those areas were pretty well established, buuuut, I could do something under the arms, a side panel! (sleeves are a possibility too). I didn't want to do anything too complicated or super textured-just something simple, but with a little interest. I liked the look of the pixie-dust-socks from Socks a la Carte 2 Toes Up! so I copied out the pattern, and thought it would fit nicely. I'm only doing one stitch repeat, but I'll keep to that pattern all the way down to the ribbing.

Even having such a wee bit of lace makes the stockinette go so much faster. I love seeing how the pattern is turning out so I actually devoted a larger chunk of time to knitting, than I would have given how crappy I've been feeling. I'm hoping to get a few rows in this weekend, it's not likely but who knows? I'd like to have plomo finished for my birthday, which is a little over two weeks away. Of course, now that I've given myself a deadline, I'll spend the next two weeks(and a bit) farting around on Ravelry, maybe making another pair of mittens that B doesn't need, or another hat that I don't need. Anything but knitting the sweater.

But back to Pixie Dust, It's a dead simple pattern to remember. Unless you're me, that is. I cannot keep track of where I am, or what round I'm on ever! I've got the pattern written on little cue cards (recipe cards actually) so I can always look back at where I am. Cheat sheets are my jam!
They don't always help me though, my own worst enemy... I have this bad habit of getting cocky. Midway through a pattern, I'll have memorized the yarn overs and k2togs and get super confident, start thinking that I don't need to check off every row as I knit it, I'll do every other row. that goes smoothly and I get extra bold, only start marking off my rows every third or fourth row.
Then, I get distracted. A cat knocks something over, or the phone rings, or I see sparkles, my toe itches, whatever it is-it throws off my count and I'm lost. And my count is fucked up. Did I knit this row? or was this a patterned row?  Fucksticks!

Anywhooo, it's a very handy way to carry knitting info around-I keep one with my sock info in my travel bag; needle size, # of stitches cast on, how many inches of ribbing I did, and how long the leg of the first sock is.

Speaking of socks- C has an appointment at the optometrist. C will be joining the ranks of the wearers of glasses, like his sister A and myself. This means I'll get some metro knitting and some waiting room knitting on my Twilight sock! yay!