The YARN is here!!!

Woooo! The handpainted yarn from Uruguay arrived this morning!

This is pretty stuff. The picture doesn't do it justice, really. It's a rich purple with red undertones and a vivid green. Really rather brighter than my usual palette - but this is a to be for a vivid sweater, one to ward off the gray of fall and winter. Hah. Honestly, when this is done, fling some gold jewelry on and I'd be ready for Mardi Gras.

It's going to be a Cherie Amour sweater for me. I was hesitant to make myself something with bulky yarn, but I noticed when checking the details and trying to find a locally available alternative, that this yarn, that the pattern was designed with, is thinner than most bulky yarns. I just wound the skeins into balls, and really it feels awfully close to worsted weight to me. So that should be good.

I need to swatch, I expect I'm going to need to go buy new needles. And I need to find a short-sleeved v-neck t-shirt or tank top to go under it - some color that will look good with it, dunno, maybe just a black, and a size that fits me sorta snug, a 2X or maybe even an XL. Not sure where best to find that, for my sweetie's entertainment I really do want it to be distinctively deeply v-necked.

Hey, bkseiver - thank you again for my swift. I LOVE my swift. I just used it and my ballwinder on all 7 skeins, wheeee. That went smoothly and quickly.

Maggie's typing

I am highly amused by this. Maggie is practicing typing on her Daddy's computer, in a Word window. Yesterday she was spelling out the names of everyone in her family - her, Jamie, Alanna, me, Daddy, Miles, Bruce, Mary. Full names where available. Today she was doing some of that, then the alphabet, now pretty random.

The one that amused me was this:

abcdefghjjklmnopqrstuvwxyznawuinomiabcnxtomwothsegwithme

Go ahead, look at that in detail and sound it out. See what she was trying to do?

Note on the first sleeve of the cardigan

Celtic Braids cardigan - first sleeve, have been doing decreases every 3rd row.

Got to 64 stitches. Put in a life line, now going to decreasing every 2nd row.

Alanna is five months old

( Pics of our girls )

And here's Maggie showing off that Alanna can sit up on her own, for a while.



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Alanna is five months old today.

Our best guesstimate of her weight is 21.5 lbs, and 27" long.
( Growth charts )

Swatching for Cherie Amour

Where is the ruler?

How can I measure this swatch if I can't find the RULER?

GAHHH

EDIT: Found it. Thank you, oh forces that be.

First gauge, 2x2 rib, 14 stitches per 4 inches, on size 11. Supposed to be 18 stitches per 4 inches. So, size 11 too large. Pattern calls for size 9 (9 and 13, gauge in 9), so tried 11 first. Now going to try 10.5.

Second swatch, size 10.5. 16 to 17 stitches per 4 inches, depending on how I read it. (pattern says "18 sts/24 rows = 4 inches over 2x2 Rib (slightly stretched) using smaller needle". Slightly stretched? Gah)

Okay, going to try again on size 10, fortunately I bought size 10 dpns for Alanna's stocking.