It was a pretty productive weekend. I buckled down Friday when I got home and finished up the Great Gatsby dress -- all except sewing up the side seams. It is *adorable*!! The picot edging around the neck edge really makes it. It took me the entire evening on Friday to do it, but I knew that I would be settling down to start the Tangled Yoke Cardigan on Saturday so I think I showed extreme restraint in working on that dress Friday night. I put it over my head on Saturday and held the side seams together and indeed it's going to look great. I guess I'm going to have to make some sort of bargain with myself to get it sewn together. Since it's sleeveless I've got a few weeks before it'll be appropriate attire anyway.
The gardeners came bright and early Saturday morning and it was a nice day for gardening. After I ran my errands I settled down in my comfy chair to start the sleeves before I had to head out to rehearsal. Since they are done in the round I cast on for both of them and am doing them like I do socks, two at a time on two circular needles. I only got a few rows done before it was time to get out of there so I picked up where I had left off on Sunday.
The sleeves start out with about 7 1/2 inches of garter rib, which is regular 2x2 rib for one row and plain knitting on the other row. This in itself doesn't sound too complicated. All one has to do is keep track of the rows -- odd or even numbered. However, there is shaping going on as well as the ribbing, which switches out to regular stockinette stitch while still shaping. One of my pet peeves are patterns for sleeves that write the increases (or decreases) as increase so many stitches every so many inches however many times. This pattern has the increases listed by rows -- for example, increase two stitches every 14 rows 8 times AND at the same time switch to stockinette stitch when you have completed 71 rows from the beginning. So here we are keeping track of each row we knit, and on a separate counter the number of rows between the increases AND how many times you have done the increase, always keeping in mind whether you are on an odd or even row.
Sunday I had downloaded a new audio book having found that I was too annoyed at the narrator for the Flashman book -- I spent too much time while listening thinking about what a terrible actor he was. The new book is VERY good and I was enjoying it and kitting along while the yard work was getting done. The man had brought his wife and young son with him because his helper left on Saturday and never returned! The little boy kept knocking and coming in and out, same with the wife, plus I was running upstairs to switch out the laundry AND listening to an engrossing audio book. After I had done the first of 8 increases, about 25 entire rows, I realized that had messed up and I had no idea where I was but I had done three rows of plain knitting so in essence I had started the stockinette stitch portion of the sleeve 4 inches too soon. I thought I could live with that so I carried on. Then later in the evening I realized that my second increase had left a hole plus the purl stitch fake seam was not looking nice because it was the last stitch on the second needle and I couldn't pull it tightly enough to look right. I left it then and went upstairs to read.
When I came down this morning and picked up the sleeves I realized that I could not live with that hole in the sleeve nor the seam and yes, I really would like 7 1/2 inches of garter rib, because it's pretty. So it's frog away for me this evening. I do think that I can rip it back to the first increase row without too much trouble. And if I can't, well then I'll take it all out and start over from the very beginning. This yarn is just too yummy for a sloppy job.
I found a race to run this month sponsored by, of all people, Top Pot Doughnuts! It's a run around Greenlake, which is always nice because it's flat. I have two weeks to get into shape for it and considering I did three miles easily last Thursday, I think I'll be fine.
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