and so it goes

I took the sweater out with me today on my daily rounds, and I swear I tried doing the applied i-cord oh, about 150bazillion times - to the point that the yarn I was doing it with actually FELTED IN ON ITSELF the last time I frogged it. For some reason I just could NOT get it to work. I was trying to use the working yarn to pick up stitches with, is the problem. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

I actually finished the seaming this morning while my middle child N was having a visiting day thing at the school she will hopefully attend next year. Actually, first, I ogled the sweater of another hopeful mom, and then I finished the seaming. This other mom was wearing a beautiful cream colored sweater done in a heavy worsted or light bulky weight yarn with a simple 2x2 ribbing at the hem and cuffs, close-fitting stockinette body, and raglan sleeves, with a really cool lacy yoke going on. She probably thinks I’m a lesbian. I was ogling her sweater but I didn’t have my own knitting with me at the time so she must have thought I was just staring at her torso for some OTHER reason. Oh well. I brought it in when I picked N up, to show it to the wonderful and amazing MG, a knitter who happens to be in charge over there, and who occasionally, so I am told, reads this blog. Hi MG! (and I am working on the teddy bear. Jacob insists. I just have to do the arms and the scarf. Oh, and the second foot.)

I also took my sweater to the public library when I went to return some stuff - the librarian there is all about my knitting and I knew she’d be tickled to see it. She was. But, she started in again about I should sell handbags, blah blah blah. No. I am not prostituting my artistic self. Ha ha. But seriously, no.

So I went to the bookstore to look for “applied i-cord techniques” in the huge knitting section at B&N. No joy. I sat and listened to a group of studious med students TOTALLY misunderstanding or at the very least misarticulating the pathophysiology of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease but I said nothing. Was that evil? I mean, I can’t imagine them having taken so well to my inside-out-shirt-wearing (noticed that on the way home *eyeroll*), furiously-flipping-through-knitting-books-while-knitting-the-same-six-stitches-OVER-AND-OVER-AND-OVER-AGAIN self suddenly busting in on their study group and proclaiming “I am a veterinarian; I grok COPD like you can’t possibly imagine; you guys are totally missing the point, let me lay it out for you...” can you?? Thought not. So I silently sat until the felting occurred and then I left.

I went home and googled it. Duh. Shoulda done that first but I hadn’t wanted to try because the girls wouldn’t have let me, anyway. But when I finally did I found the Keyboard Biologist’s fabulous tutorial:
http://www.keyboardbiologist.net/knitblog/archives/000344.html
Yay, Keyboard Biologist! Is that not the best blog name ever, btw? Hee hee. Anyway, now I’m just picking up every “purl bump” or whatever you call it, from the garter edging on the sweater, instead of trying to pick up with the working yarn like a moron. It’s looking really good (she says, knowing that even as she says it, the sweater is metamorphosing into something that looks like crap. O Fate, why do I tempt thee so?) and I’m excited to finish it hopefully this week.

I ordered some yarn (Cash Iroha, on sale at LittleKnits) to make a Column of Leaves scarf for MIL to replace the Magic Ball scarf I knit for her and gave to my aunt. Of course I am still seeking the perfect ribbed v-neck sweater pattern for me to make myself with my peruvian tweed...

I think I might be overdoing it with the knitting.