I just took a quick check of my comments and need to address this one right away - I am not pregnant! Leanne, my friend, is the pregnant one. I thought that was clear, but maybe not? Trust me, when I do get pregnant, it will not be an addendum to the end of a post about other stuff. ;-)

I found the perfect pants to go with HoJo! We made a very spontaneous trip out to Tanger Outlets in Riverhead yesterday and I found them at J. Crew. So, if you were in my office, this is what you would see coming towards you today.



Tonight, Ryan and I are going to see Leanne, who is participating in An Evening of Good Taste. Can you believe they're letting us in? ;-) I'm looking forward to seeing and tasting the show, and seeing Leanne and her (have I even mentioned this yet? I might not have) 5-month pregnant belly!

I'm still trying to figure out what to do with my Cotton Colori. I have 8 balls in the "turquoise" colorway. The colors look like a swimming pool and feel so cool and comfy to me.

There is a free pattern on their site, which looks OK, but the gauge is 14 stitches on 10.5 needles and I don't like the way the yarn looks in my swatch at that gauge. It looks much smoother and nicer at 16 on 9s. I feel like I have a ton of patterns at that gauge, but can't seem to decide on one. I was debating making another Ginger but I kind feel like I ought to do something new. Then again, the shape is extremely flattering, and I always get compliments on the one I made in Summer Tweed. What do you think?

I also seem to have gotten myself into a little fruit cap spree. I mentioned on a message board I frequent that I was going to be making them for several friends who are all pregnant right now, and showed a picture. Suddenly people were offering me money to knit them for their babies and for gifts! So far it seems like a manageable number, and people are OK with paying 20 bucks each. I think that's reasonable enough to cover the cost and then make me feel like I am making a little pocket money for having fun and knitting.

I went to Knitting Hands to try and buy some Cotton Classic and get started, and they had maybe 10 skeins of various shades of beige and gray. I asked if they had more and was told I could special-order it. Well, I told the woman who was "helping" me that after the trouble I had the last time I did that, I was not interested in special-ordering through them again. Her less-than-apologetic reply reminded me that I had said I didn't want to shop there anymore, so we left. I called Yarn Connection in midtown and they said they have a lot of colors, so I'll head over there sometime during the week.

The Democratic debates were wonderful for giving me time to seam up HoJo and have something interesting to listen to and think about while I was doing it. It went well. I finished during this morning's chat on CBS, jumped in the shower, and couldn't even wait for my hair to dry before handing Ryan the camera. Without further ado, I present, HoJo!

I love it and am damn proud of myself. Between the asymmetrical rib, the traveling cable rib and the fair isle band, I feel like I have increased my knitting skills tremendously with this project. I also have a new favorite sweater in my closet.

Of course, it'd going to be in the mid-to-high 50s for the next few days, but I don't mind - I'm sure I'll have an opportunity to wear HoJo before the season ends, and I'll take Spring over sweater-wearing any day!

I decided to screw the nonsensical directions for making the neckband ribbing match the body ribbing and just do what made sense to me. It worked. I didn't get to sew it up, but hopefully will get to that tonight. Then again, if you click on my little Weather Channel banner, the forecast makes it appear that I don't exactly have to rush on this - I won't be wearing wool for the next week, it seems!

I cannot believe I am going to post this, but I'm having trouble with the neckband of HoJo (all the rest of the knitting is done - yay!) and need to know. So here goes: If the pattern says start at the left shoulder, is it the left shoulder when you're looking at it or left when you're wearing it?

Actually, I think I have tried this both ways and the stupid asymmetrical rib doesn't match up with either, but I'd like to hear what the rest of the knitting world thinks.

Oh, and my fever broke last night and even though I am definitely not 100%, the 80% that is here is going back to work tomorrow.

Still sick, still knitting. I blocked the front, back and the one completed sleeve of HoJo last night. I'm working on the last sleeve today, and if I finish it I can block that overnight and finish it off tomorrow! I'm hoping to be back at work. Well, I don't want to be at work, but I don't want to use any more PTO days.

Oh, I'm also too lazy to take a picture of the pieces blocking, so you will just have to wait. But they loooook gooooood!

Well, I'm sick, but it's a productive illness. I didn't leave the house all weekend, and hojoly shit, I am nearly finished with the back of HoJo! Ryan came in and saw me working on the last of the fair isle and got so confused because he thought it was the front that I had already finished!

I am staying home sick today, because my throat is still very sore. So, I'll probably finish the front and make some damn good headway on the sleeve. I'll probably block whatever I can this morning, since the kitchen sink is empty at the moment. ;-)

No pictures of HoJo back, but it looks just like the front in reverse. :-)

Well, I put up a valiant struggle and got sick anyway. My throat hurts, my head hurts, and I generally feel like a big pile of crap. I'm sure I will be fine in time for work on Monday. Grrr.

I will get plenty of knitting time, though. Ryan went over to a friends' house for a "winter BBQ" so I will be on the sofa with HoJo most of the day, I think.

Of course, if I were one-dimensional and only had one arm, I could just sew this sucker up and wear it now!

When I finally finish HoJo and wear it for the first time, I will dedicate that wearing to Wendy Johnson. Wendy patiently answered my fair isle questions via email, and I sat down tonight and got through all the armhole decreases and the more difficult of the three charts. Now it's just more of the easy chart, some ribbing, and I can start the whole process again on the back! Here's the progress so far.



In other news, Ryan's been sick all week with a nasty cold virus, and I think I might be getting it now. Damn! Just in time for a busy day at work tomorrow to feel it descend over me, and then let it totally kill me over the weekend. I think I'll try the Zicam I bought a while ago, and get some Vitamin C and echinacea in me. Wish me luck!

You are Mercerized Cotton.
You are always very crisp and neat. You are very
playful and are happiest while outdoors in the
sunshine. You are sometimes accused of
splitting hairs, but in the end people find you
pretty easy to live with.


What kind of yarn are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

How amusing. I suppose I like mercerized cotton - it looks purdy.

Haven't touched HoJo since my last post. Been busy and haven't had the patience to figure out the chart. Oh well.

Now I'm on my way to Baltimore and the National Aquarium for the weekend with my sweet husband. Hope you all have a lovely Valentine's Day and a great weekend!

Well, working late Wednesday and Thursday nights precluded knitting, so I actually didn't get to finish the ribbing until I was on the train Friday night. Then I finished the first section of Fair Isle, which didn't require any decreases. It looks fabulous.

Now I'm up to the second chart, and I'm having a bitch of a time with it - this is where the armhole decreases start. Maybe some wonderful reader will have a better clue. Here are my issues:

1. The chart has markings for where to start for each size. My size says to start on the 2nd square of the chart. Gotcha. Do I continue that for the whole chart, or do I continue merrily along, doing the whole chart for each subsequent row?
   
2. I'm supposed to bind off four stitches for the first two rows. I am assuming I bind off the four stitches and THEN start the chart. Is that so? And if so, is the stitch that is on my right needle after binding off that last stitch the first stitch, or is the next one? (I think it's the former, but need to be sure.)
   
3. When I decrease, do I count the decrease stitch as two squares in the chart and skip one, or do I count it as one stitch in whatever color the chart specifies there? If the latter, doesn't this screw up the chart because I will have fewer stitches than the chart was written for?
   

I've tried various ways of doing this and nothing has been quite working. When I get to the first chart repeat, it turns out I should have one more stitch and I don't. But the row before is definitely correct. Argh! Anyone have any good fair isle resources?

I am having so much fun with HoJo! In the past, most of what I've knitted has either been straight stockinette or intarsia. Mostly because that's why I tend to like to wear. I generally like simple silhouettes. But I am enjoying the slight challenge of the branching cable rib so much, and I love watching the pattern unfold!

I was really disappointed to get stuck at work until 10:30 last night, because I didn't have my knitting with me. I only have 8-10 more rows (can't recall exactly) of the cable rib, then a few inches of regular rib before I get to the fair isle part, which I'm equally excited to play with. If all goes according to plan, I'll be fair isling on Amtrak tomorrow afternoon on the way to Albany!

I also really like this yarn - Classic Elite "Follies." It's got such a nice feel to it, and the stitch definition is good. It just zips right along on my Addi Turbos. This whole project (and the MiniChic before it) has really re-energized my zest for knitting!

Here's where I was the night before last:

I finished the sleeve, started the front, and found another thing to love about HoJo. Although the sleeve shaping was really irritating and involved far too much thinking, the front will not. The placement of the branching cable rib is at the waist, and it naturally pulls in a bit, so there is no shaping on the front of this sucker until you get to the armholes! That little thing made me very happy, and I managed to whip out about 17 rows of the branching rib before I got too tired to concentrate any more.

I'm heading up to Albany this coming weekend, to spend some girlie time with my best friend Lisa and her infant son, while her husband is at Army drill down here in the city. Baby Alex is too young to express an opinion, so we're considering it girlie time despite his technical maleness. I will finally get the opportunity to give her the Quiz sweater, which I am embarrassed to not have mailed earlier. I'm excited for the weekend, and also for the 2.5 hours of knitting time I'll get on Amtrak each way!

What a nice week - I didn't work late at all, went to the gym twice and had a fun dinner last night with Ryan and my friend Stacy. I'm sad because Stacy's moving to Chicago next month, so it's good to spend time with her before she leaves.

I also spent some quality time on the sofa with HoJo. I made it past the branching cable rib back into the overall rib pattern without any disasters. I did have to undo a bunch of rows of knit and turn them into purl, but I find that kind of satisfying, so I didn't mind. If we aren't running around too much this weekend I'll probably finish sleeve 1 by Monday morning. Here it is so far.

I am so toasty today, wearing my MiniChic over a long-sleeved cotton tee. Bonne Marie, you are far better than the wind beneath my wings - you are the warmth atop my shoulders.

The MiniChic is complete! I look absolutely awful in these photos - post-gym, post-shower, no-makeup. Goes to show how excited I was to show off my latest project!





Now I guess I will be focusing on HoJo for a while.

Well, I made it to the 3rd-to-last row of the branching cable rib before my head started to spin and I put it down. I get all edgy with the "increase in pattern" thing. I think I'm OK, but the pattern is complex and lazy me didn't actually think it out COMPLETELY. So I am worrying that in 2 rows, when I switch back to the regular rib, it'll be messed-up on the edges and I'll have to figure it out again.

So I put it down and went back to the MiniChic. I finished the front and back and sewed it all together, then started on the collar. I followed the directions carefully and that thing looks way the heck too short to fit around the whole neck opening. I can't tell if I perhaps did the neck decreases too early (don't think so, because the pieces came out perfectly matched in length, which means I followed the pattern AOK) or what. Or maybe there's some mysterious secret I am unaware of that makes the collar fit in that space. I think I am going to just add some rows into each piece of the collar until it fits in there. Hopefully I can get that done tonight. I want to wear my cute little poncho soon!

Look at me, getting the branching cable rib chart right! OK, don't look because I haven't taken any pictures yet. But I'm on row 20 and I've got it figured out now. Just was making stupid careless errors before.

I decided to start on the HoJo sleeve even before finishing my MiniChic. I was fine until I got to the branching cable rib chart. I have the left twist just fine, and I feel like I was following the chart to a tee, but 12 rows in, it just doesn't quite look like it's supposed to. Boy am I glad this is the sleeve rather than the front - it'll be less painful to frog!

I think what's messing me up is increasing while working the chart. You're supposed to increase in pattern, but the damn pattern changes every row, so it's hard to fathom. I'm going to go rip it back to row 1 and try and concentrate a bit harder. Maybe having had something to eat and drink will help.