Good progress yesterday. I took some pictures in the afternoon, while the sun shone, but I’ve done more knitting since then, and should manage still more today.



I like the way the reverse st st gusset looks, now that it’s finished. I like the way the whole thing looks. Famous last words.




I feel very slight tingles of anxiety about whether I have enough yarn. When the shoulders were joined, there were seven skeins left – three for each sleeve, I figured, and one for the neck ribbing. Although that won’t take a whole skein.

I’m now about to polish off the first of those seven skeins, and I am only about 5” along a 25” sleeve. The stitches, however, are decreasing at an orderly trot, and I’m probably going to be all right. I can re-group when the next skein is finished.

I did the sleeve-decrease-arithmetic last night, using Brown Reinsel’s formulas, and arrived at the conclusion that I need to decrease two stitches every 2.5 rounds. She doesn’t say what to do in a situation like that, where rounding either up or down doesn't appear to be an option. I am alternating the decreases every-three-rounds and every-two rounds and will continue like that until I collapse in confusion. When I stop to consider how far the yarn is going, I’ll re-count and re-calculate the stitches as well.

I went back to Ravelry yesterday and updated things. I found that Leigh Witchel had added me as a friend, and rapidly did the same for him. His is a Name from the early, great days of the Knitlist. His avatar Phyllis Stein is Dolores’ soul-sister. He is a choreographer and a knitter – I have actually knit his famous “puzzlebox Aran” from a long-ago Knitter’s (for Theo’s father Roger) and, indeed, actually met Leigh, on a long-ago trip to NY. I was glad to see that Dance as Ever and Leigh’s knitting career both appear to prosper.

The arrival of the new IK (Spring) was a pleasant surprise, but I don’t think there’s anything there for me, and I found the articles a disappointment. I wish they’d given Mar more space to write about Ravelry – she hardly had a chance to get started. I like the Chameleon Scarf but will never submit myself to the fiddliness of knitting it. I rather like Eunny’s Katharine Vest but it’s too ladylike for me.

On the other hand, the Minimalist Cardigan last fall completely passed me by, but now that people are finishing and wearing it, I’m thinking again. From a great distance – there’s too much to do at the moment.

Here is the latest Yarn Yard sock yarn. It’s time for me to renew my membership, and I think I’m going to have to do it, although there soon won’t be room here for living. My Beautiful Blue and Perthshire Berries from the same source haven’t arrived yet.