Tuesday is sewing AND knitting day.....

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

Well, we got our van back on Friday, and they weren't able to pinpoint what has been causing it to stall, so we're in a holding pattern with it. They checked the obvious possibilities, then said that it would be a lot cheaper to drive it around until it gets a lot worse (so that the problem is more obvious) than it would be to keep looking for a needle in a haystack...so that's what we're doing. If nothing else, I have peace of mind that a part isn't going to fall off of it in the middle of traffic..... (though, I probably shouldn't have "said" that "out loud"...).

Anyway, since I last wrote, I finished my nephew's sweater (at last Saturday knitting with Baxterknits, Elizabeth, and Linda -- such a nice and talented bunch of knitters). Well, it is finished **except** for the finishing (just like two or three other projects I have sitting around here -- one of these days, I going to have a "finishing frenzy" and force myself to get those things done, though I don't seem to be in any hurry.....). Once it is finished and blocked, I'll show a final photo of it being worm by one of my kids, and then we won't have to talk about it any more.

I've also made a lot of progress on my Supernova pullover. Here's the front (or the back -- doesn't matter, because they are the same) with side shaping added (pattern calls for straight -- I shaped it per directions in the Perfect Sweater pattern on the Mason-Dixon website): Circles are going to be sewn into the indentations at the top. I was knitting it mostly in the car (no internet access), and found one error in the pattern for the circles, which I figured out, so I was able to keep going. (Sometimes, the difference between "P2" and "P1" is really noticeable...) Also, the pattern schematic says the circles are to be just over 4 inches diameter....and seriously, that just can't be right. That would mean that the distance from the outside edge of my right shoulder to the outside edge of my left shoulder would have to be only 12 inches. I'm thinking it should be more like 6 inches diameter per circle. Upon checking for pattern corrections on the Interweave Knits page, I found that it lists the first error I found, but doesn't list the dimensions as being erroneous, so I sent them an e-mail and I should hear back within "two to three business days" or something like that..... Regardless, my first circle was coming out to be way bigger than 6 inches, so I switched to smaller needles and tried again. Now, at 6 inches diameter, I think it's going to be too small... ...so I'm going to try again with the larger needles, **after** I hear from Interweave.....

Anyway, since Tuesday is sewing day, I worked on my valences. I only got four panels done, but here they are, shown "installed: I decided on 7 panels for each window. I was going to make only 5 panels, slightly wider, but because I'm making these from existing valences, my fabric wasn't the right dimension to cut to a larger size..... I'll talk more about these, maybe next Tuesday. For summer, I can have the lighter sides showing as more dominant; for winter, I can change them around so that the darker sides are more dominant, though really, not sure I'll actually get around to switching them around..... I'll show a before and after shot next Tuesday, too, if I can get one window completed by then.

Well, already lunch time. I went to the gym this morning. Then, my 4 year old and I went to the veggie market, then the grocery store, then I showered, I'm posting to the blog, and now its already lunch time. I really don't know how you folks who have full time jobs are able to get everything done!

More soon!
Warm regards (and I do mean "warm" -- hot and humid here today, though so far, we've kept ourselves from turning on the air conditioner)
Laura (YarnThrower)