Guess who can knit?

Where to start? First of all, I am feeling much better. Still not 100%. More like 64%...but I'm functional, so that's something. Also, I just doused myself with cold medication, so perhaps I can write this without hacking up a lung. Cross your fingers, o.k.?

Ahh, my little tiny project. No, Jill, it's not a teeny tiny sweater for the friend I "see" when I use my coping mechanism. You silly. Penguins don't need sweaters. They're used to the cold! But not a bad guess.

It was this:



Loopy's Red Sock Kit. Cute, n'est pas? Oh, I had fun making this one. Irene really wanted there to be enough yarn for two tiny socks, so she could use them for her new doll, but it was not to be. I did email Sheri and she told me that the yarn is Cherry Tree Hill's Wild Cherry. Note to self: Order some to knit socks for Irene and her doll. Anyhow, after casting on for Bri's sweater 3 times, I needed something quick and easy. This fit the bill.

Thanks to all of you for you compliments on the FO list last time. You are all so sweet! I really expected for everyone to just glance right over the list. Really, I only posted it up so I could erase the tally I'd had on the sidebar and not lose all the info. I'm crazy that way.

So back to the sweater from hell Brian's sweater. I'm up to the armpits. And no, I hadn't ordered the book yet. Errrr. This garment is becoming an irritation. I broke down and ordered it today through Knitpicks. Shewolfy, thanks for your tip on Amazon, by the way. I do use them a LOT, but this time I had a reason for ordering from Knitpicks. An unfortunate reason. Here's how it went down...

I keep the sweater, yarn and needed tools in my knitting bag. I keep it hanging on the doorknob to the hall closet. It's just a handy place, easy to reach but out of the way. And Brian gets jumpy if I leave knitting bags on every surface. (What's with that?) Inside said closet are the children's coats, my purse, etc. No biggie. Directly to the left of this closet is the door to the basement. Inside this door are more hooks, which hold Brian's and my coats. How to explain? For some unknown illogical reason, I seem to have left my knitting sticking a little bit out of the bag. Just a little. Like, maybe only the tips of my working circular needle. OK? Somehow, in my haste to grab a scarf from inside the basement door and lug three small children out the door to school drop-off, I managed to make a mistake. It went unnoticed. I did, however, notice it later.

I tried to open the closet door for the boys to hang their coats back up upon our return from drop-off. It was stuck. I looked inside and figured a coat or fleece or scarf or bag was stuck. Nope. Mop fell over and got caught in the hooks? Nope. Hmmm...what could it be? Why won't the door open? OH. I see. My needle is caught in the door next to the closet. But of course! And why wouldn't it be, right? I start to panic, expecting my sweater to be half off of the needles. I grab the needle out of the door. No, actually, I try to. Doesn't work. I try harder. I start tugging like a maniac, freaking out and starting to yell at the door. I finally have to unlock the door and open it up most of the way to get the needle out. And yes, the needle has seen better days. It is...crimped. Yeah, that's the word. No. Maybe the right way to say it is that the stinkin' needle is Fu-bar. So I ordered another Options US 9 tips set and the book. The good news: no stitches fell off the cable. Miracle of miracles.

Now I wait for the book. I'm not sure if a raglan sleeve works the same at the bottom as a regular yoke sleeve. By that, I mean, I'm not sure what Elizabeth Zimmermann's percentage system says to cast on. For the yoke sweater, it's 20-25% of the Key number. As much as I want to cast on and get started instead of waiting for the book, I'm not sure I will. I'm not certain that I can bear to frog another huge chunk of this project. Perhaps I will wait to see what the book says.

Knitting drama aside, I'd like to show you who can knit. I showed you the cool book I got from Suzanne over the holidays, right? Well, we're looking through her knitting basket and she's taking out some (very!) old WIP's and telling me all about them. Brian finds a blue and white scarf and it turns out...

It's HIS! As in, he made it. (Well, he was working on it...it's not finished, of course.)



This is the back. The word is that he was just choosing stitch patterns and using them for a while in different stripes. And get this! He picks it up and starts knitting on it!!!



No word of a lie. Can you believe it?! I think it was the coolest thing ever. Naturally, I became excited and jumped for the camera. "You're not going to put these pictures on your blog, are you?"

Um, duh.



My husband, the knitter. Wow.

Irene starts asking him questions. Guess what?

Uh-huh. You know it. He shows her how to knit.









And she's pretty darned good at it. All right, go ahead and call your hubby in here to see Brian knitting. Go on. You know you want to.