Persistent Knitter

(there should be pictures in here, but I haven’t had time to upload them from the camera yet. I paid bills and balanced the checkbook last night instead. Also - future note to self, make sure you type in the "final balance" amount correctly when reconciling an account in quicken,or you’ll never get your numbers to come out right!)

Ok, so I wasn’t on vacation, just maternity leave (10 weeks), which are now officially over! I’m back at work today and getting back into things. What did I do while on leave?
1) Have a baby
2) Recover from having said baby
3) Clean up & Organize my workshop (new shelves, new workbench)
4) Knitting: Hardangervidda, started 2 new pairs of socks and finished nothing.
5) Organize my scrapbooking stuff
6) Organize my knitting stuff
7) Take a few naps
8) Play Thief 3 on xbox

In the Knitting world…
Hardangervidda is coming along great! I put it on two needles this weekend & had DH try it on. It fits - yippee skippee it fits! Here’s a picture of the latest progress:

[imagine great picture of Hardangervidda here!]

The zipper steek is started, and I’m soon going to have to start a steek for the neckline. I think I have an idea on how to do this, but will consult with my local expert (aka Judy) to make sure. I know that the pattern says to start back and forthing at the neck, but forget that!

Another thing that happened, I’ve decided to NOT knit Ingeborg at this time. Yes, I swatched like mad - and was pretty pleased with the results. However, the intended recipient decided she’d rather have a different sweater first. Yeah, I heard that "first" too and told her that we’d see about a second sweater. What will I be knitting? Bjerk from the same book as Hardangervidda in these colors:

[Imagine really pretty colors here -- light purple, dark purple, deep blue & burgandy]

I’ll swatch first to verify that the colors will work well together. I’m pretty confident though. I’m using Falk again for this - so the same yarn as Hardangervidda uses. It has the same exact gauge, but the suggested needle size in the pattern is much larger (must be because the model sweater is knit in Tiur). I’ll be measuring my gauge on Hardangervidda and deciding what size to make Bjerk from that. Another odd thought - when comparing Heilo with Falk, the Falk felt softer! I always thought that superwash yarns weren’t as soft as non-superwash yarns. This one will go pretty fast because there is very little colorwork in it even compared to Hardangervidda. I might have to make this twice - once for my mom and once for myself if it comes out really well.