Wicker

Wicker
Seaming in progress - use #26 for hair clips!

Artistically draped over the back of my couch

...and on me (courtesy of the self timer - Marie hasn't learned how to work the camera yet)

I'm proud of myself for finally finishing it - it took over a year and almost 8 balls of Debbie Bliss alpaca silk. I've learned my lesson about Rowan patterns - sit down and write out all the instructions, line by line. Be more realistic about gauge - especially row gauge. And understand your own measurements better - without blocking, the sweater is a little short on me. We'll see how blocking takes care of that.

And new on the needles:

Buttony Sweater. I redrafted the pattern last night to be more specific to my size and gauge and cast on. I'm using Malabrigo Chunky, in the colorway Charrua. I love the look of brown and blue on the skein, but I'm not sure how a whole sweater of it will look - thoughts? My LYS has a spectacular selection of Malabrigo Chunky, and I'm sort of tempted to exchange what I haven't knit up for another color....

In other news, work is still stressful. My computer started acting up last week, so I had to get my hard drive replaced. I got my computer back with the new hard drive today, and hardly anything has gone right. Email, Word, Excel, and printers all not working properly. Some have been fixed, but it put me a solid day behind. And with one report due Friday and a set of experiments due the 31st....I need a break. Unfortunately, it's going to keep on at this pace with two new sets of experiments next month and 4 or 5 reports to write around the middle of the month. And I found out today that my grandmother in Germany passed away yesterday. It's not surprise (we found out when my brother died she was sick), and I haven't seen her since I was 13, but with all the thoughts about trips there as a child, I'm a little sad.

Seriously, I need a break :)

Back to knitting!