Baby Sweater

Of course the more there is to do, the more important it is to have knitting projects on the go. The latest project that I've seen through to completion is a miniature version of Sally Melville's Einstein Coat. It's called the "Baby Albert" and it's too cute. It's a very simple pattern in garter stitch from Sally's The Knitting Experience, Volume One: The Knit Stitch. The slip stitches at the beginning of every row are essential if it's going to work properly but the part I didn't grasp until at least halfway through is that they need to be slipped purlwise. That changes everything. Anyway, I didn't botch it too badly but now I know for next time. The big achievement for me is that it's the first baby project I've managed to finish before the baby outgrows it! Here it is, all blocked out on my blocking board:

Here's a detail of the buttons:

I used a cotton-wool blend for this project (more cotton than wool). I would highly recommend it for anyone wanting an easy baby project. It's definitely something a beginning knitter could do.

I Want Some New Yarn

I am just itching to buy some summer yarn (the picture on the left), but I have some stash from last summer that I haven't even touched, as well as an in-progress denim project (the Rowan jacket pictured on the right) that I need to pick up again soon. Birch is languishing in a state that has not moved beyond intial cast-on. The only project that I have spent any time at all on is a sweater, that might turn out to be really ugly, but it's easy enough to knit when I watch 24. It's the only thing I watch these days, and then only sometimes, and definitely only on DVD. I can't tune in regularly to anything, and in any case I'm well behind on seasons, currently in the early hours of Day Four (so far, not in the same league as Day Three, IMHO). The rule around here though is that you are not allowed to forge ahead alone with the episodes. Lest you think that I watch it uncritically, I do not. But I don't have the energy to get into it right now.

The bottom line is, there is no need to buy new yarn right now because there is no time to knit it. Not that the intention to knit is a prerequisite for a new yarn purchase, of course. There is sometimes just the luxury of a box of new yarn delivered to the house, and then the subsequent unconscious seeking that ensues as the right brain (or is it the left brain? I can never keep them straight) tries to find the perfect project for it. Truly, the process can take years.