Errata

I wish I had taken a look in ravelry before knitting this jacket, because they have a link to this pattern's errata.

Not that it did me any good. By now I am done with the first pocket. And that's a problem. According to the pattern, you place the liner, leave the pocket  stitches  on a stitch holder, and there is no further mention about what to do about them later on.

Because I did not know about the errata page, I had to come up with something, so I based myself on the pictures in the book. I did not knit the liner separately, I picked up stitches from the bottom, saving
myself a seam, like my mother taught me. She also taught me to bind off
my pocket edges prior to joining the liner, so that's what I did. And because there appeared to be a seed stitch border, I knit that border before casting off.


That picture was taken before the liner was finished and joined.

Now that I've checked the errata, it appears that I should have added the border after placing the liner. I did think of that possibility, but then I would have to sew the border on the right side of the jacket. Having all seams on the wrong side made more sense to me. And really, there is no difference, except that the pocket is a tad narrow.

I don't mind, and I'm sure that my friend's baby will not mind either. I will have to remember what I did so I can repeat it on the right side of the jacket.

But once more I am glad this was a library book, and that  I don't bother buying knitting books.

Not that I'm buying many books lately. That's the blessing of having a well stocked library.



That is the Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss, another fantasy book that kept me turning page after page. That is the spouse's recommendation. I am very happy I married a guy who shares my reading tastes.

In that picture you can also see the pocket after joining the liner. It needs a couple of side seams on the inside, but no seams on the outside will be needed.

Slideshow and baby jacket

I made a slideshow out of some of my pictures form Oaxaca.



And here's the new project, cable and moss stitch jacket, from a Debbie Bliss book I checked out of the library.


That's the back of it, posing next to Lia's recommendation: The thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield. This novel has a little of everything: mistery, romance, madness and a few skeletons in the closet. It was a good read.

I am much less pleased by the Debbie Bliss book. The amount of mistakes and omissions in the pattern makes me wonder why they bother paying an editor. I had to figure out some stuff in order to work the back. I cringe to think of what awaits me as I begin the left front.


That novel is Comfort Food, by Kate Jacobs. I don't watch TV and I don't like to cook, so reading a novel about a cooking show host seemed like a bad idea. But I kept on reading, trusting Pilar's judgement. It is not my type of story, in that I like conflicts to be a bit less inane than a simple rivalry between TV hosts. And yet, once in a while I can enjoy a lightweight, friendly story.

Progression

This is how the socks were progressing as I was reading some of the recommended books .

First, another Hellboy comic (I'm going through a phase, I guess).



And then, The Spanish Gardener, by A.J. Cronin, recommended to me by Sandra:



This is a very bittersweet story that I would have enjoyed much more if the main character had been more credible: a very poor Spanish boy who, even though he could not afford an education and never left his native  hometown, could easily speak, read and write in English.  And though his English is perfect, the author has him constantly repeating "señor" and "amigo", as if those were the two words he did not bother to learn. I had read another  A.J. Cronin book before: The Green Years. Perhaps that raised my expectations too much.

I took a break from sad stories and from the socks (the colors were becoming too dull to my eyes) with Letters from the Earth, by Mark Twain. This was Thuy's recommendation. The first part, the actual letters from the Earth, is very funny and invites you to reflection. The rest of the book contained many unrelated pieces of writing, some of them more interesting than others.



Those booties are for a friend of mine who is having a baby in February. Knitting them was a breeze but I hated seaming them. I am still not done with the second one. I did keep knitting the socks and finished them before packing, but I did not have time to wash them. I did so on my first day in Oaxaca and took a picture of them in my hotel room before meeting the recipient for breakfast on the day of the wedding.



By the way, Oaxaca was great. The people are fun, they dress beautifully, they cook wonderfully and the roads are a disaster. But every sight was worth the drive.  I wanted to make a collage of all my sightseeing, but I hardly found the time to make this post.

I already started another project because those booties seem like a smallish present. I will post about it later.