You are the proud mother of... fraternal twins!

These guys are seriously fraternal:


And I don't mind a bit. I love them. They are absolutely gorgeous. I was feeling a little badly that I hadn't made a shoulder shawl with this lovely yarn, but the honest truth is that I won't use a small shawl (there's not enough yarn for a big one), and I will use and enjoy the hell out of these socks. They are beeeeeyewtiful. I don't know which one I like best. I like them both best.

There's quite a lot of yarn left — actually about 30g:



My friend Yvonne (who's visiting from Australia) suggested I make a third sock and see how it comes out... I nearly have enough for that. (But not quite; I used 85g for these two.)

Inching along...

Making progress! We have a house guest and I have been on the tired side, but things are coming along:



I don't know about these sleeves. I got them to at least approach fitting, but they don't seem to fit in very gracefully (see the lilt up to the right on that sleeve?). To be fair, I did opt to do the garter stitch edge rather than the specified rolled stockinette, which probably makes more of a flare.

I'll finish up and we'll see how it fits Carson. I can always redo the sleeves if I need to. Though I'm going to be pretty close to out of yarn when I'm done with this. Her birthday is the 10th of July so I need to be speedy!

Finished the first of the socks with Kraftie's great handspun:

Is that not gorgeous? Her handspun is amazing, so even and lovely and soft. It's a pleasure to knit with. I still feel so honored to be using it. The sock fits like a dream and is very soft. Merino-tencel is a great combination. THANKS Kraftie!

Soooo close!

Took that photo this morning. Wove the ends in this afternoon. All that's left is to sew on the frogs... I've tried once and will have to rip it out and try again. May take me a few days. I think it'll be the most irritating part.

The exciting part: this cardigan fits me better than any sweater I've made myself yet. Whoop! However, I'm afraid to wash it; I think it will GROW. Alpaca-tencel, not much memory... So for now, I'll wear it as is.



Meanwhile the sock continues beautiful. I realized I'm not exactly doing Conwy; I'm screwing up the twisted baby cable. I always get confused when they say "knit into the back loop of the second stitch" — do you go around the first stitch, or insert between the first and second? I did the latter, and I think it's wrong. I don't get the braided effect, this way. But I don't really mind; it's still very pretty and suits this gorgeous yarn well.

Socky.

I'm really liking how Kraftie's handspun knits up in Conwy. Even if, as seems likely from this photo, my two socks are going to be very different from each other. I could do something about this (e.g. knit alternately on two socks, or rewind the yarn), but I kind of like the unexpected and I have no problem with "unmatchy" socks. I'm ready to accept what the universe gives me, handspun sock-wise.

I don't have any other knitting to show you, though I'd better finish SOMETHING soon because I'm itching to cast on "Hey Teach" in some dishcloth cotton I have exploding out of the stash. So here's some garden stuff instead.

I mostly garden in pots these days. I decided to try planting up some pots with more than one kind of plant, you know, like they show in gardening magazines. This is my first attempt, two months in. I'm pretty pleased, though I expected the black grass hiding on the left to grow a bit more. But, yay, the creeper crept!:



Many things are blooming in my garden at the moment. There have been roses:

Gardenia and startlingly orange hibiscus:



And one absolutely stunning epiphyllum:

Not quite.

Well, I tried again on the sleeve, adding four extra rows, but it's still not quite right. And then I suddenly realized why it wasn't right.



There are three reasons, and they have nothing to do with the pattern!

One, I am not getting row gauge. I knew this, but let myself forget how it might affect the sleeves. I am getting many more rows per inch than specified (even though this is Sublime yarn and a Sublime pattern and all that). I adjusted the main body of the garment, but not the sleeves.

Two, I forgot and used the wrong size needles on the whole sleeve. I used size US#3 for the garter stitch and then forgot to swap back to #5s.

Three, I get tighter gauge in the round, so I should be using #4s and #6s.

I mean, ya know. Like. Duh.

I have started again (actually started again twice — first time I accidentally started with #6s and switched to #4s. WHERE IS MY BRAIN?).

In another batch of not-quiteism, I think I mentioned I was working on the socks with Ashley's handspun when I realized two things (I'm into counting today):

One, 80 stitches was way too much. Even with #0 needles my gauge ain't that high.
Two, this boring ol' rib wasn't doing Ashley's lovely handspun justice.

I mean, if you're going to knit with handspun it should be special. So I pored through my books and have cast on for Nancy Bush's "Conwy."



I think this is going to be better.

Something is wrong here.

And it's not just me. I swear it isn't. I've read the pattern a bazillion times.

I knitted up the front of Carson's Honesty T, and seamed the sides...

Check it out. There is something wrong with the arm. This sleeve just CANNOT fit into this sleevehole (and yes, according to the instructions the sleeve is ready for cast-off).



This pattern is from one of the Sublime booklets (#611 I think), and there are no errata for that particular booklet, -- but I don't have the pattern in that booklet. I have it in a booklet called “Knitting Brings You… Kids Knits April 2008." I'm thinking possibly this booklet repro has a missing bit of the pattern. I looked on Ravelry, and three people there have knit the sleeved version of this top, and I emailed all of them to ask. But I think I can easily fake it if I can't find a correction.

Yesterday I finished my intentionally-fraternal green socks from the yarn April sent me. They are possibly my best-fitting socks EVAH and I am in love.



I love the color, the fit, and how well they go with my pajamas.



I was irked enough by the problem with Honesty that I cast on a new pair of socks right away, rather than waiting until I finished 2 projects, breaking my own rule yet again. But this is Kraftie's merino-tencel handspun, and it is SO beautiful. She sent it to me in September 2007 and it's taken me a while to be ready to cast on. It's 80 stitches on #0 needles; I started with 2x2 rib and have just broken out the 4x4...

Ahh. I feel better.