I'm in so much pain.

No, really, my arm is seriously sore from the flu shot this afternoon.

But the real reason for my pain and sorrow - I had to frog 16 rows of my Swallowtail shawl. I picked it up last night for the first time in nearly a month, and couldn't get through the row I should have been on. Stitches were missing in some places, extras had appeared in others. And when I went to knit past a nupp in the previous row I saw - sit down - loose loops. You know, where I had completely failed to include them in the p5tog on the previous row. Just dangling in the wind.

I really wasn't keen on tinking back on 200+ stitches per row, so I frogged to the lifeline (thank you lifeline!). Sigh. I'm now further behind than I was a month ago when I put it down to work on Audrey's sweater.

Which is DONE!

Here it is washed and blocked:

And modeled:

It fits her perfectly and the arms are long enough to actually cover her wrists (a problem with store-bought sweaters). Maybe could have been another inch or two longer in the body to accomodate a little more growth. But, it was such a fast knit and so cheap ($13!), I can just make her a new one when she outgrows it.

The Details:

Audrey's Sweater

Design: My own

Yarn: KnitPicks Swish Superwash, Capri, just under 4 skeins incl. swatches

Needles: US8 and 6 (ribbing)

Notes and Lessons Learned: Swish Superwash grew when I washed it (but dried flat). Others have reported shrinkage in the dryer. Though shalt swatch with this yarn. Other: neckline of 1/3 body stitches fits over her head easily, used EZ stretchy sewn bindoff on neck. Armholes a little deeper next time?

She's a winner!

Thanks everyone for your kind birthday wishes! The winner of the gift certificate is Cindiluhu, chosen by Excel random number generator. I left you a comment on your blog - please email back to me with your details so I can get this sent out to you!

Thanks again!

You say it's your birthday...

Well it's my birthday too, yeah! Happy Birthday to me! My birthday is Monday, November 6th. And I'm turning, umm, 29. Yeah, 29. That's it, honest! Would I lie to you? In honor of my birthday, it can be your birthday too - just leave me a birthday greeting in my comments before the end of November 6th, and I will pick one lucky reader at random to receive a gift certificate from either Knitpicks.com or KPixie.com - winner's choice. If you happen to live in a country that neither company ships to, I'll send you something of equal value myself.

I have completed my first (half)week at my new job and it looks like it will be a good place to work - much more to do than my old job. Pluses and minuses there, the biggest minus being I dare not post blogs or hang out in Knittyboard during working hours. I will try to update my blog at least weekly from home though, probably mostly on the weekends.

This past week was the great candy holiday of Halloween. Before you can go beg the neighbors for candy however, you have to put a jack 'o lantern on the doorstep to let them know your house is fair game too:

Step 1: gut the pumpkin. Better yet, enlist your child to gut the pumpkin. It's a rite of passage no child should miss, and it saves you from getting pumpkin ook under your nails.

Step 2: carve the pumpkin. There are over 70 attachments in the Dremel 400 XPR kit, and not one of them is labeled "pumpkin carving attachment". That should have been a clue. After severely gouging the top of the pumpkin at several thousand RPM, we put down the power tools and picked up the paring knife. Simpler, slower, and better fine control.

Audrey cleaned up in the candy department. I've gained 5 pounds this week.

Knitting

This week I finished one (1) arm of Audrey's sweater. I wanted to make it a set-in sleeve, knitted shoulder down. I found directions similar to what I wanted in Elizabeth Zimmermann's "Knitting Without Tears" - the Kangaroo Pouch sweater. I seamed up the sides, which had been knit flat, and picked up the stitches around the armhole. A few short rows later, and I had a nice shoulder on the sleeve! The hard part was not the short rows actually, it was integrating the short rows with the pattern, a combination of moss stitch and baby cable.

Here's Mr. Bear modeling the sweater. His arms are much shorter than Audrey's (although his head is much bigger - thus, I did not try to cram him through the neckhole.)

Later all! Happy Birthday to you!