Typical.....

Greetings and Dear Laura:

Well, I'm closing in on finishing the Tulips Cardigan. As usual, the project would be going better if my brain were not half dead!

When I started this sweater, I needed size 4 & 6 needles. No problem, I have an entire set of Knit-Picks Options, which I LOVE! I am all about the slippery shiny metal with sharp points! I went to my handy storage case....and didn't have anything smaller than a size 10. I wandered around, checking UFO's for tips. Oddly, most of the needles in UFO's weren't part of the Options set. The truth is, when I finish a project, or finish swatching, I'm not very consistent about putting the tips back in the bag. I'll leave them in the basket with the yarn, or in the bag I was carrying the project in, etc.

I wanted to get started on this, so I turned to the lamp beside my chair. That's where I store my other circulars, dangling over the neck. (Knitters are usually amused by this lamp, non-knitters think it's weird.) I did manage to find the size 4 tips, so I was set for the edging. I found a size 6, 24" circular, and that worked fine for the body. When I got to the sleeves, I wanted to do magic loop instead of DPN's, so I made another search for the size 6 tips. I ended up with a size 6, 32" circular which was theoretically long enough for magic loop, but not long enough to do it comfortably. I decided that since this happens to me rather frequently, I would bite the bullet and order additional tips in size 5, 6 & 7, the most common ones that I can't find.

My first pass at a sleeve came while I was waiting for an additional colorway of yarn to arrive. When the yarn arrived, I was able to switch back to the body, and wait for the size 6 tips to arrive. I had hopes they would arrive on Friday, but no such luck. I did buckle down and finish the body and edging on Thursday, so Friday night I did a few sleeve rows with the 32" needle, then gave it up. The tips arrived on Saturday, but since I was out gallivanting with Libertine Knits (yay!) and enjoying Knitting at Lunch's wedding, no sleeve knitting happened! However, the tips did arrive while I was out and about.

Sunday, I sat down to conquer that first sleeve. I opened the package, put the tips on the 40" cable, and knit the sleeve from the short needle to the longer one. I turned to put the short needle on the lamp (you can see where this is going, can't you????) and there, dangling with the regular circular needles, I noticed the red cables of 2 Options needles. The size 6 and 7. Sitting there right beside me for the last 3 weeks. HOW I managed to search that conglomeration of needles and not notice them BEFORE - that remains a mystery.

But typical for me!

I finished that sleeve on Sunday, and before picking up the second sleeve, I stopped and wove in the ends. It looks much closer to "finished" without all those ends! Monday was busy however, and so now I am at Tuesday. The party is tomorrow. That means I have to finish the second sleeve, weave in those ends, and have it blocking e'er I sleep tonight!




Keep knitting!

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter)

Oh! And I can't WAIT to show you the sock yarn I got!! Soon, I promise!