Thank you so much for the advice!!

Haven't gone to get the buttons nor made the loops for 'em yet, but otherwise it is assembled, blocked and done. And a lot bigger than I had anticipated, as always — I'm infamous for making 6-month size clothing that is really closer to 18-month size. But wow! I'm so happy with it! And I couldn't have done it without you.



Here's a closeup of the neckline. Knittah and ampliflyer suggested picking up the stitches and either purling back or doing ribbing as an edging. What I did was pick up 1:1 stitches with a size 2 needle, knit 1x1 ribbing for a few rows, and THEN did 4-stitch i-cord. It still curled a little but blocked out great!

Here's a closeup of the bottom edge, where I used twistle's recommendation to knit a kind of gradual zigzag of stockinette into garter. This still flipped (and as you may be able to see, I didn't do a perfect job of knitting this zigzag), but it didn't flip as much or as hard, and a good blocking fixed it. Of course when it's washed by the recipient and probably hung to dry, I don't know what will happen, but I think it'll still keep the baby warm!

Thanks again for all the help. I'll hope to have a finished piece to show you in a few more days.

I got nothin' — so you get somethin'

I have done zero knitting this week owing to Jewish holidays, the Henry Rollins show (w00t!), and other nonsense — like going to see Roger Reynolds' Sanctuary Project tonight at the Salk Institute, which should be interesting.

SO! Make a comment and tell me this: what would you do if you unexpectedly had an afternoon off work — or, if you're retired, an extra 4 hours in your week — but no money to spend on it?

I'll draw a random comment from all those received by 6 p.m. PDT on Tuesday night, and the winner will get my Spring/Summer 2008 copy of knit.1, featuring "natural knits", some cute amigurumi animals, and other stuff. I've read it a few times now, but don't want to keep it.

The photo below is from our road trip this past summer. We went to Salt Lake City, and saw this unusual sculpture on a city street near the Tabernacle.

Not the achievement queen this week

Partly it's the Jewish holidays, partly it's a flareup of some hand/arm problems, but mostly I think I'm spending way too much time surfing the Web and not enough time knitting.

I appreciated all the suggestions on the curling edges. I'm trying them and we'll see what happens. I want to get this matinee coat done SOON before the baby is too big for it!

Speaking of which, I finished (finally!) sewing the buttons on Meghan's cardigan:

Yep, I went with the gold ones in the end. A tough call, partly made because of the ease of buttoning these. It'll be interesting to see, when I make a blue one of these with the same yarn, how the wooden buttons look on it. I think they'll both be nice.

I also made myself a washcloth using Tunisian honeycomb stitch. I make a couple of these a year, because I use them twice a day and they do wear out. Just standard dishcloth (Lily Sugar 'n' Cream, in this case) cotton and a size G Tunisian hook.



I love honeycomb stitch. Tunisian fabric is thick and stiff, and with the honeycomb texture it makes a wonderful scrubby washcloth. Tunisian crochet, especially with cotton, is kind of hard on the wrists, though, so I'm glad it's done.