celticdragonfly

It started SNOWING outside!

Yes, yes, my northern friends will think nothing of this. But hey, this is Fort Worth, TX. Snow is uncommon here.

So of course we had to bundle up the baby and take her out into her first snow. And take pictures.

http://pics.livejournal.com/celticdragonfly/gallery/00034qd7

Also got the chance to take pics of my new sweater, which I'd just finished, and am now quite grateful to have done.

I am continuing to work on the Celtic Braids cardigan. It's a bit nerve-wracking - despite having done multiple baby sweaters and kid sweaters, this is the first one for me - my first set of adult sleeves.

I'm at the point on the sweater sleeve where I think I want to stop doing reductions every 3 rows and start doing them every 2 rows. The pattern had called for every 4 rows - clearly that would have given me sleeves for a gorilla.

Before I go ahead with that decision, I'm spending time working on finishing details. This is to make it easier to try things on and get a clearer idea of how the finished garment will look, and make the decisions easier.

Yeah, right, you didn't believe that either, did you? I'm procrastinating wildly to avoid deciding what to do on the sleeve and whether or not I should put in a second life-line. But hey, at least I'm still making actual progress on the sweater. This has to get done sooner or later, and this way there will be less to tidy up at the end.

I have all the extant ends woven in, and 4 of the 9 buttons sewn on. I will knit fearlessly, but when it comes to things like sewing on buttons, I'm back to feeling like a 7 year old trying to sew something for her teddy bear. I don't think my skills at that have much improved, either. But it ought to do.

I got this from knitting.about.com, but now it's not there any more, so I'm going to put it here so I can find it later.

ONE ROW BUTTONHOLE:
Work the required number of stitches before starting the buttonhold.

As if to knit, slip one stitch. Between the tips of the needles, bring the yarn to the front of the work and drop it. As if to knit, slip the next stitch from the left-hand needle to the right-hand needle and pass the first slipped stitch over the second slipped stitch and off the needle. Not using the dropped yarn, bind off the required number of stitches in this manner.

Slip the last stitch on the right hand needle back to the left hand needle. Turn the work around. Bring yarn to the front. At the edge where the buttonhole was started, using the twisted method of casting on purlwise, cast on one more stitch than the number that you bound off.

Turn the work around. Slip the first stitch from the left hand needle to the right needle as if to knit. Slip the extra cast on stitch over the next stitch and then slip this stitch back onto the left-hand needle.

TWISTED PURL CAST ON:

The twisted purl cast on method provides a firm edge. It is decorative on both sides of the work.

To begin, make a slip knot and place on left needle.

Insert the right needle into the back of the stitch (furthest from you) as if to purl.

Wrap the yarn around the right needle as if to purl and pull loop through. This twists the stitch.

Place the new stitch on the left needle.

Continue to purl through the back of the stitch on the left needle and place the new stitch on the left needle.