6944 stitches for 2 1/4 inches. What the hell am I thinking?



I'm certainly not complaining. I got myself into this, and for some reason it seems to be so much more work than the first little cardigan I made. Maybe I am just faster at lace than cables. Or maybe I just like lace better. I have no idea, and it really doesn't matter.

This is really just a poor excuse for a progress report. This is the only thing I've been working on, and I'm starting to think I should work on my melon shawl more instead - it seems to grow at a more rapid pace. I am afraid if I do that then I will never finish this little thing and the boy will be 10 years old and it will fit on his little sister's doll or something. (Of course he has no little sister right now, this is all made up, and I seriously doubt it will take me 9 1/2 years to finish a little baby sweater. So we hope.)

All I want to do right now is eat some chocolate - it has been two weeks since my last chocolate and I've got to last another two weeks. Some stupid thing my friends and I are doing - no sweets for all of January. But there is no prize at the end and no punishment for failing, so it is hard to explain why we are doing it. I think that my body is enjoying the break from all the torture it usually gets, as I am completely addicted to chocolate and sugar in general. I have been looking forward to oreos and ovaltine in February, definitely. :)

88 degrees

I got a new toy today:



I didn't have much to take pictures of before the sun went down, and the pictures of the sun going down were boring because it was mostly just cloudy and pretty much everything in the pictures were grey. Nevermind.

I've started a new sweater for Colin. It's from the same Dale pattern book as his first sweater, which apparently fit him soon after he was born, so I'm making his next sweater in the 12 month size. This means I have to finish it before September because he will be 12 months old then and it will probably be too small.



It will be a cardigan with cables - very preppy, which is sort of his style at this point (thanks to mommy). That's 224 stitches on size 0 needles. Yeah.

I used the Italian tubular cast on (thanks to Francesca) which is actually much easier and faster than the method that uses waste yarn and a provisional cast on. It did take a little while, but it was well worth it, as always. The yarn is Dale Baby Ull, just like before, so she can wash it. :-)

These little baby sweaters are supposed to be faster to make, but really it's just a trick. There are more stitches on this one than there were on my hybrid, and I've done about ten rows and it's not even an inch long yet. What the hell?

They do look cute in the end though.

I have been told that this is the warmest winter in Florida since the 1930s. It was 88 degrees yesterday, and at least 80 today. I was looking forward to some cool weather in January so I could wear my red sweater, but it's just too hot. I have the opposite problem than Kris - there is too much sun here. Maybe if this happens for a few more years they will call it global warming. We'll see.

I will end here with a funky cactus shot. I hope you enjoy it. :)