It's a mixed bag in fiber land here in Maryland. I love the buttons that I chose for Slinky Ribs I had planned to wear it one day last week, but ..... It doesn't fit. The sleeves are perfect but the body of the sweater is too long in the arm/chest area. The neck line of the sweater, which is supposed to be low, hangs below the bust line and looks horrible. What this means, since the sleeves are picked up and knitted down from the shoulder, is that I have to rip back both sleeves and the top of the sweater down to where I started the neck opening and make that whole section shorter. My guess is that my row gauge was way off. I don't usually look at that because I can never get both row and stitch gauge correct with the same needles and stitch gauge is more important. In most cases. Obviously not more important in the this case, but equally important. I plan to put it away until I am less angry about the whole thing and then rip it out and re-knit. I will fix it, just not now.
There is also a shawl, knitted in cotton/rayon, that I've been working on for a while. I discovered an error about 15 rows back. I'll fix that, too, but not right now. Frustration!
The good news is that I finished knitting the body of the vest and will begin the edging soon. I plan to block the vest first, sew the shoulders closed and then knit the edging, which has been narrowed down to either garter stitch or I cord. I hope to block the vest and Mom's hat one evening this week.
The other good thing is that I started knitting the IK cover sweater last night. It's the Leaf and Picot cardigan . I am using Silky Wool in blue. I've decided to knit the sleeves first, and I am knitting both at the same time on separate needles. I am alternating between needles/sleeves to keep them both at approximately the same place. I will plan to knit the back next, and the two fronts at the same time. For a change of pace I plan to knit the sweater as instructed in the pattern rather than change things around, knit in the round or knit the sleeves from the top down. I like the sweater just the way it is and seaming doesn't really bother me. Both sleeves are past the picot edging and about 1 pattern repeat into the lace.
In order to actually finish projects in a timely manner, I plan to concentrate knitting on the vest edging, the new sweater, a sock and the Saroyan scarf. I am hoping that not allowing myself to get sidetracked with other patterns will allow me to finish the vest by the end of May and the sweater by the end of June/early July.
Wind kept me from being able to skirt my fleece yesterday. I am hopeful that one day this week I will be able to do it when I get home from work, and then start the washing. I am sorta tempted to just wash the whole thing, but I am just getting impatient. Sigh. I'll be good.
I left work early on Friday so I could have some sunny outdoor time. I was able to do some weeding, dig out the boxes that the strawberries are growing in (from under the mound of mulch we covered them with last fall for protection from freezing) and place them on the deck. I also helped DH with some boat prep and just generally enjoyed being outside in pleasant weather. On Saturday, while it stormed, I worked from home to make up the time. That worked out very well.
Despite the soggy ground, I got in some weeding yesterday. I only spent about 15 minutes weeding because I've had so much trouble with my back in the last 2 months. I don't want to ruin the progress I've made with over-doing. If I can get out there 3-4 days per week and do that 15 minutes of weeding, I will get it done and not be miserable.
ETA I just got back from physical therapy and I was strongly advised not to vacuum in the house and not to exceed the 15 minute limit on weeding/gardening. The first will be much easier to do than the second.
DH is putting the boat in the water today. We had hoped to do it together yesterday, but the winds were not favorable. There's no point in making things harder for yourself. I wish I could be there with him. Darn this working for a living. : ((
I did some spindle spinning (Wensleydale) over the weekend and plied a bit more of the silk. I think one more plying session will finish off the silk that has been spun so that I can get back to the spinning of the remaining fiber. I am sure that I won't have the chance to spin tonight but maybe a few minutes each night this week ....
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