Bad, bad blogger

I've been a very bad blogger. I know. I was intending on updating earlier in the week...but a couple of things came up:

1. Primarily, the knitting baby blues. I finished the 1st sleeve on Monday night. Yeah! Or, so I thought. I was working on the sleeve while watching "Sense and Sensibility" -
One of my favorite Jane Austin movies (I just love her in general though) - and I guess I was more caught up in the movie than paying attention to my sleeve directions. So basically, I got the point where I was supposed to decrease at each edge for a number of rows. For whatever reason (ok, I know the reason - I was watching the movie instead of paying closer attention to my knitting), I ended up binding off rather than decreasing. Of course, I didn't realize that this was probably going to be a problem until I had triumphantly (or so I thought) finished the sleeve. So, that means I'm going to have to rip back a few rows. Sigh. It's only about 20 rows - no big deal...but I always get nervous about doing that. So, what's my response? I've moved on to the second sleeve. Procrastination. The stitch doctor will get back to the first sleeve once the second one is properly finished. On the positive side, the second sleeve is already on the red part of the color pattern so it won't be long!!!

2. My hubby and I went to a Lord of the Rings festival a few days ago where we watched the Return of the King in the late evening. So, that left no time for knitting on Tuesday night - although I did think about bringing it with me - there would have been a few problems. First, the theater was too dark. Second, even if it was light enough I would have likely had a replay of Monday night b/c I'm even more into the Return of the King than Jane Austin. Third, I think my hubby would have really thought that I've gone off the deep end with the knitting stuff if I had brought my sleeve to the movies.

I'll tell you though - I'll be so happy to be done with this sweater! I'm almost there. So close in fact, that I purchased yarn for my next project..which will finally be for me!! I don't know if I mentioned it before - but my next project is going to be the "To dye for" sweater from the Stitch 'n Bitch book (I promise you - I do have other projects in the queue than those from Stitch n 'Bitch - but I wanted another simple one to do first before moving on to something a little more ambitious). The original sweater is knit in a mohair by Halcyon - but I heard that it's a little scratchy. My skin is pretty sensitive so - I took the plunge and ordered 9 skeins of Rowan Kidsilk Haze (according to the lovely woman who helped me from www.theknittinggarden.com I will need to knit it with 3 strands together to attempt to match the gauge) in this color:


It was a little more money than I planned on spending, but I figure that I'd rather spend a little more on a nice yarn that will feel nice and I'll want to wear rather than a slightly cheaper one that will make me itch all day. Rationalization?? Anyway, next Wednesday I'm going to a little Sit 'n Knit event in my neighb so I want to be ready to go for the new project because I WILL be done with the Manly Sweater by then!

Have a great weekend all!