I'm being a good girl...

...and I have not worked on other projects, only the orange thing:




I still believe I'm going to miss my deadline, but I'm going to feel less guilty about it.

Undetectable progress

I know it doesn't look like it, but I did work a few more rows, honest:





I'm not going to finish on time. And here's why:




I know, I know, I should stay away from knitting deadlines.

Mea culpa

Yes, I have been working on the blue ribbed sweater....




But I've also made some progress on the orange tank, see?






OK, OK, I'll try to work more on the orange top and finish it on time.

In the meantime, I'd like to thank Susan for letting me know that single ply yarns tend to slant. Does anyone know how to identify a single ply yarn? I think this was my first time ever and I surely need to prevent this disaster from happening again.

You call that blocking?

Believe me, I tried. Twice, in fact.



And the reason it looks so crooked is because the brown yarn itself slants when you knit it:





This was a blocking nightmare. That's why I should block my swatches, so that I know what to expect from mystery yarns. So, have I blocked my swatches for the other projects? Er---no. I'm a hard headed knitter... But I also trust yarns that actually have labels on them. The brown mystery yarn came from somebody else's spring cleaning, and who knows what it's made of.


Here's how the orange top looks so far:




I also cast on for the ribbed sweater (remember the blue swatch?), even though I have a deadline for the orange top:


Did I mention I was a hard-headed knitter?

Another drawback

Remember the laprobe? It's finished, and though it's been blocked, it doesn't LOOK blocked. The brown yarn sections slant to the right. Ugh. Not even cheap acrylic does that. I don't even have a picture because I'm soaking that thing before attempting to block again.

Ebay needles

I've been blessed with a patient, knit-tolerant husband who lets me use his ebay ID to bid on stuff. Thanks to him, I now have the following:





This means I can now make a swatch with the katia yarn and maybe also with my eight dollar whim.

I've been knitting mostly with needles I get from my mom's stash, with the exception of a circular that I bought in walmart and a set of dp's that were far too expensive at a LYS. I bid on these needles because they included a pair of 5 mm, which I need for the katia. I like metric needles. I've used them all my life and I more or less know what type of yarn goes with which needle size. I remember my dad using a caliper to measure some unknown needles my mom got once. I don't even know what units are used to measure the diameter of British or US needles.

So there.

A ribbed swatch to start with. I changed my mind about the ribbing after a few rows. I like the 6-2 more than the 6-4 ribs.





I also started working on a new orange top with my ebay cotton:





And I also kept working on that lap robe, so I don't feel guilty at all about starting new things:

Startitis

I feel much better after Stacie's post. I have decided to shed my shame and get going. So yes. I have several unfinished things and I still plan too keep on working on them, but I'll go ahead and start new projects. After all, it was a miracle that I found my blue cotton yarn near a beach resort, and I also invested some time dyeing my linen, and I'm curious to see how it knits up. Why should I wait?

Boooooooooooring....

Yes, lap robes are boring. I'm still working at it, but I couldn't stop myself from finishing that little orange swatch:


I guess I'm feeling more like starting things than finishing things. Is that a common ailment?

Finally

Here's that green thing that took forever:





And here's how my linen looks:



Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to finish a lap robe that I haven't touched since May.

Purple Thumb

I finally finished the edging on the green tank and blocked it. Also, I dyed the Spanish linen. I unraveled the linen from the cone and tied it with some cotton strands to prevent tangles. Apparently two of the strands were too tight, and as a result, the dye could not penetrate under them and I ended up with "tie-dye" yarn. It looks funny but I'm going to knit it anyway. And if I don't like the results it won't matter. This was my eight dollar experiment, remember?






See those pale flecks? I'm not going to worry about them.



In the middle of the process I noticed that my right thumb felt moist... and so I ended up with a purple thumb. I had stashed away a left glove from a previous pair (why is it that the right glove is always the first to break?), and I finished the job with my poor right hand squeezed inside a twisted rubber glove. They should really sell some right hand singles.

What? Another swatch?

Oh yes. I couldn't help it. I get excited about new yarns and like trying them right away. Plus, It would be nice to knit this up and send it to Spain before the summer is over. This should knit up fast, since I'm copying my previous tank. But first I must make sure I measure my swatch correctly, since I'm using a different yarn and it's certainly not meeting the same gauge. The nice thing about this paralellogram pattern is that increasing or decreasing width should be easy.

The Quilt

This is what I've been doing lately:





Isn't it pretty? My square is up on the left. My task has been mainly cutting, pinning and ironing, so I don't deserve much credit.



And of course, I haven't done any knitting progress.