Practicing my frogging

Has it really been two months? I know "write blog post" has been on my mental to-do list for several weekends in a row now but I hadn't realized quite how long it had been until Blogger informed me that I've ben derelict in my blogging duties. Remember my other goal for the year - figure out a better work-life balance? You can guess how well that has gone.

Actually, that's not quite true. I've been better about spending time with family, reading a book here and there, and taking a bit of downtime to knit. I just haven't blogged about any of it. But I have plenty to share and, if I can swing it, maybe I'll even have an FO or two after this weekend.

I feel like I've been living up to the name of this blog recently. There's been a lot of frogging. And tinking. And dropping down several rows to fix something. Let's just say that I've refreshed my skills at fixing mistakes. Yes, I probably could have avoided quite a few of those had I slowed down to think things through and plan out what I was doing (life lesson there?) but who wants to plan when you only have a few minutes to knit?

First up: Miss Marple, a lovely little girls' cardigan with lace detailing at the front edges.

Apparently I was half asleep when I did the neckline shaping on the right side front and had to rip it back and rework. But that was fairly straightforward. And the back neck shaping only took two or three attempts to get just right. (I subbed out short row shaping for the stepped bind offs in the pattern and it always helps when you start that in the right place - note to self for next time). All in all, it didn't take too long to get to this:

I'm using a Cascade 220 solid for this one (Tadpole had requested a yellow sweater). It's a great workhorse yarn but I keep daydreaming about how this would look in Quince & Co. yarns. I think it's fair to say that I'm suffering from "grass is greener syndrome." The sleeve cap looks a bit big to me but I've learned that I should not trust my instincts when it comes to toddler sizing (at least for my toddler). I'll keep you posted on the sizing once the sweater is done and I've convinced Tadpole to try it on.

Next up: Little Oak was an accident. J and I were up in the burbs last month when he said, "hey, isn't that a yarn store?" (Good husband, right?) 20 minutes later we walked out with this lovely skein of Dream in Color Everlasting DK. It's splitty as heck but takes color gloriously. With no babies in mind, I cast on for Little Oak within a day or so (almost unheard of for me). Luckily for me, one of my work friends is having a girl and the shower is next week so I have both a deadline and a recipient.

The cables are fun to work. Much more fun if you count your stitches accurately when setting them up and you don't have to frog the beginning of the yoke three times before you can get to the good parts. Ask me how I know.

I definitely don't have enough yardage to work full sleeves for this one so I provisionally cast on at the yoke join and I'll work short sleeves (just a couple rows of stockinette before a shot bit of ribbing) to finish the piece off.

I seem to be having a bit of trouble with yarn shops in the burbs. We've been house hunting. Unsuccessfully. And I've comfort shopped. Can you blame me?

These (the result of another trek to see houses in the burbs) will turn into a striped version of Wee Wildflower for Tadpole. But I'd better do a solid one first to make sure I know how the pockets work. I'll likely do intarsia pockets but want to have a better handle on how they are constructed before I jump into the striped version.

And what about J's sweater? A few weeks ago it looked like this:

It's a bit longer now but not by much. I haven't touched it in the last couple of weeks (sweaters for small people are distracting). It's a lovely color, more like this:

This weekend I'm hoping to make some time to sit down and figure out how to make forward progress on Armas again. I'm getting close to splitting the yoke into body and sleeves and I'd better remember to have J try it on first to make sure I've accurately calculated the yoke depth. 

But for now, I need to go see if I can convince Tadpole to come look at buttons with me at our local yarn shop. That's her favorite part of the store so I think my odds are pretty good.