I am a sneeze away from being done with my Organic Chocolate Tomato tee. I've been quietly knitting away on it. It's hard for me to tell if it's going well, since it will shrink 10% when I wash and dry it the first time. It doesn't look great now, but hopefully that will change. I also have mixed feelings about the colorwork, but I think I will like that much better after washing as well. Washing fixes everything!

almost ripe chocolate tomato

The thing washing won't fix is that the ribbing on the one sleeve I finished is too loose. I'm going to reknit it with smaller needles. Cookie helpfully pointed that out to me, but was kind enough to also warn me not to show her my sweaters, because she'll always find something wrong. Duly noted, Cookie!

I have also pulled my Lotus Blossom Tank out of hibernation. It was actually pretty much finished. I had sewn the shoulder seams and just had to finish around the edges and it was done. But, it wasn't right. I did two sets of short rows for the bust and that was too much. In addition, I hadn't knit far enough on the sides so it did some ugly angling things. I ripped back to right before I started the second set of short rows and I'm moving forward. It might even be done in the right season!

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I am still working on the Starghan, but I am also knitting again.

big star

I've actually made quite a bit of headway on my Lotus Blossom tank. I have finished the front and am working my way up the back. I think it looks pretty good so far. I have high hopes for it. I might try to add some short sleeves, if I have enough yarn. I doubt that I will, though.

The Husband Hybrid is also growing. Both sleeves are done and I'm about 4 inches into the body. I need to knit 18 inches of body before I can connect it all. That's going to take some perserverence! Wish me luck.

4" down, 14" to go

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I have completed the lace part of my lotus blossom. I was going to say that I feel like I'm in the home stretch but those long boring rounds of stockinette are a snooze-fest. I'm determined to finish this top with enough time to wear it before it gets cold. I think I have at least six weeks, though. It shouldn't take me that long. (I hope this isn't famous last words.)

lotus short rows

I am also making great progress on the first sleeve of the Husband Hybrid sweater. I am knitting the sleeves first so that after I slog through the body I get to join the sleeves and start the exciting decreases rather than having to mini-slog through the sleeves at that point. It worked for Rogue, I'm hoping it works here too. I'm actually thinking of making myself one of these in one of my other colors of All Seasons Cotton. I'd want to make a V- or U-neck, though. I'll have to see how I feel about that idea after actually completing the yoke of this one.

HH sleeve

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I started the Lotus Blossom tank from last summer's Interweave Knits last weekend. It actually started with me making an enormous mistake. I got out the hank of linen and thought, "well, since I can't use my ball winder to wind this I might as well not get the swift out either, I'll just wind it off the hank." I sat down on the couch, laid the hank in my lap and started. Yes, laid the hank in my lap. Yes, I'm an idiot. The result was what Anabel called a "yarn monster."

a cautionary tale

I am posting this on my blog for two reasons: 1) to warn anyone else not to do this and 2) so that you all will remind me not to do it again. This is the second time I made a mess like this. The first time was right after I started knitting, almost five years ago, and I didn't actually own a swift. This time, I have no excuse. The first time the yarn was wool and Erik ended up being the one to untangle it. The linen is much easier to untangle, I have to say. Lucky for me, Anabel is intrigued by puzzles like this and took it upon herself to finish most of the untangle for me at last week's BobaKnit. Thank goodness!

That done, I swatched, washed the swatch and cast on for Lotus Blossom. I thought I twisted my stitches, though, and was knitting a moebius when I wanted a tank.

my mistaken mistake

It's hard to tell if your stitches are twisted when you have 260 stitches on a 24-inch circular, I've decided. Of course, I didn't discover that I was indeed not twisted until I had pulled the needles out to rip back. The smarter idea would have been to slip the stitches on the 47-inch circular that I was supposed to start using at row nine. Ah well. I managed to get everything back on the needle and have made decent progress in the past week. I'm starting to feel the groove of this pattern.

One and a half repeats

In other news, I found Hempathy. Hempathy is a hemp/cotton/modal blend. It's soft for a hemp yarn and very pretty. I bought it on vacation in Pacific Grove at Monarch Knitting. This was my kind of store. They have a gorgeous husky as their shop dog and a cute little bird (parrot?). I was wearing my Rogue and looking at the yarn and one of the women who works there, possibly the owner, came over and said, "Ooo, did you make your sweater?" I said I did. She gave me the knitter's handshake (she rubbed the hem of the sleeve) and said, "Lavold?" I said no, she said, "Interweave?" I told her it was Rogue from Girl from Auntie and then she said, "Oh! You put in bust darts! You're a Knitter." (You could hear the capitol K on Knitter.) At that point the shop dog came over and licked my hand. I commented that the dog decided she could greet me now and she said, "yes, she only licks the real knitters."

It was highly entertaining. After all that I wasn't going to buy the Hempathy, even though I've been looking everywhere for it. My mother, however, pointed out that I had been looking for it, it was a great color and I didn't know if I'd find it again. My mother is an enabler! Ah well, at least I got a sweater's worth of some nice yarn out of it. Now I just need to figure out what to knit.

Hempathy

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