Still here and still knitting!

For various reasons, I won't have reliable Internet access until June 6 or 7, but I am still knitting. I finished a hat and a pullover, both for friends — sadly I have no photos to show you yet — and started a matinee jacket for another friend's new baby. This is all there is of it so far:

That color's wrong, it's actually a lovely magenta, but hey... I'm distracted anyway.

Sometimes the magic works...

...and sometimes you still need to frog.

I definitely get a tighter gauge when I knit in the round. That shouldn't be surprising, most people do, but for a long time my gauge in the round was the same as my gauge on the flat — over time and with more knitting practice, it changed. So I knew this, but I still swatched on the flat for this sweater I'm making, and then kept trying to convince myself that 4 spi was going to block out to 3.25 spi.



Finally came to my senses. Frog pond!

Yep, I'm knitting it right off the old one!

I do realized I've started and not finished a number of other sweaters, and really shouldn't start another. But this is a special one, for a friend who treasures crafts and has never had anything knit for her. She has also had a rough spring with harsh medical treatment, and could use a hug. Since I can't be there to hug her, I am going to send an owl pullover to hug her for me.

Yep, knitting o w l s! (I haven't gotten to the actual owls yet though.) And yes, those are wooden needles you see there. I don't like wood needles, but when you desperately need a 24" in US 10.5 and the only store open only has Clover... well, you buy 'em. I'll live.

Frogging isn't all bad. Sometimes when you frog, you get ideas. The grey yarn will suit the owls (and my friend) well, but it needed a little spicing up. And I had this lovely skein of Alyson's handspun, all merino and starfire, staring up at me. It's fingering weight, but doubled it works perfectly in this bulky-weight design. I'm using it to tip the waist, wrists and collar.

While all this was going on, I discovered that instead of buying the number of meters of yarn the pattern called for, I'd bought enough yards. Which, you know, is NOT enough meters. Oops. Even though I'd bought the yarn just a week ago at Webs, it was on sale and of course is gone now. I tried a couple online sellers and no luck, but then, someone on Ravelry had one ball of the right dye lot and wanted to sell it! She promised to post it tomorrow. So I am saved, yay. Ravelry rocks. (Try saying that ten times fast, though. Not so easy!)