More Knitting and not so much Spinning

Happy Sunday to everyone!  I woke up feeling pretty well this morning and things are only getting better.

In the past week, I have done no spinning.  My Highland Handmades Shetland fiber in the Embers colorway is just sitting on my wheel.  I was a little bummed when I looked over at my bag full of fauxlags for this project and discovered that it had tipped, spilling my previously gradientized rolls all over the floor.  I did my best to put them in order- oh well, the spinning will tell how well I did!

As it turns out, this past week has been pretty great for my knitting!  I completed a previously almost finished project, my Great American Afghan Square #6.  The finishing french knots and bullions were added and viola:

Now to start Square #7.  I have a beautiful dark green Cascade 220......

In the meantime, my Lady's February Sweater was coming right along:

Yes, I did say the word "was."  A dose of cough syrup with codeine combined with the gull lace pattern (which you don't see here because it is embarrassing how I messed that up) spells frog.  I am thinking I may rip back to the point you see here, because, this looks ok.  More on that in my next blog report.

Back on November 15, to be exact, I started knitting a sweater out of Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere for my coworker, Tandi.  She is having a baby girl, her second daughter.  I am knitting the Maile Sweater by Nikki Van De Car.  If I were smart, I would read through my patterns and swatch before I start to knit.  I don't know if I don't do these things because I am really stupid or craving weird knitting adventures.  Well, I got a true adventure with this sweater!  Now, giving credit where it is due, Nikki says, in the pattern itself, that the construction of the garment may be altered to make it easier on the knitters hands and needles.  But you have to pre-read your pattern to catch that.  I just blindly followed the instructions- until I saw how stretched and ugly my stitches had become, under the arm area.  That was sometime ago, I think even before Christmas.  I put the whole project into time out.  No problem, until Wednesday of this week.  I looked at Tandi and that baby has dropped!  Unmistakeably!  She is due the first week in March, but, this is her second baby.  Out came the sweater and off with those sleeves!  I even reknit the last 2 rows of both sleeves and the sweater body to get rid of those ugly stretched out stitches.  Then, I cast off 5 stitches on each sleeve and 2 sets of 5 stitches each on the body where the bottoms of the sleeves come together.  That gave enough ease for me to easily magic loop and complete the sweater.  So, here is my second finished project for this week:

I would like to make this sweater again.  Only this time, I will cast off the sleeve and underarm stitches, the first time around!  Maybe one day, when I have a grandbaby of my own......

Next time, I hope to be able to review a new yarn for you.  I found Bare Naked Wools while tripping through new groups on Ravelry.   I am intrigued, so I ordered 2 skeins of Breakfast Blend (merino/Alpaca 60/40) in the Burnt Toast colorway to try out. 

Until next time, keep the fantasy alive!