Dalarna Update

I was home sick with a double ear infection this week - owwie. But - wow, I'm pretty pleased with myself!

Dalarna body - done! :) She may be a rumpled tube right about now, but in my mind - the biggest portion is behind me. I think I've decided on patterning the entire sleeves. Then again... (And no Marina, I will not race you!)

I'm so happy that the tension is even on both sections. You use a 3.5mm for the stranded portion, and a 3mm for the top red portion. And it looks great! Yay me!

But, I'm still wondering why I can't use traditional Shetland steeking methods? The yarn seems to be sticky enough. I didn't incorporate steeks for the arms, so I'll be working the Norwegian method there. However, I cast on extra stitches for the center steek, just in case... But, I'll probably chicken out, and reinforce the edge stitches prior to cutting.

*sigh*

And Lorraine has offered up her sewing machine when the cutting time comes. This is one funky pattern though. Not much in the way of instructions. I'm not even sure I've shaped the neck properly. She's clear on the front neckline, however, when it comes to casting off the back neck, you're told to cast of xx centre stitches (and don't expect to be told how many stitches to work before casting off either - get out the calculator), and then cryptically told to "cast off one stitch at the neck edge on the next row". Although I'm pretty confident in my finishing/shaping abilities *stares blankly at page* ...um, how many times? Uh, and uh, why...? So, I didn't because it didn't make much sense in the shaping department. Oh, I hope it'll be OK...

To anyone who's done this type of knitting before - do I cut the armhole steek first, then sew the shoulder seams together? Or the other way around?

Well, so it's time for the arms. In between my covert Christmas knitting! That I've restarted 3 times! Because I can't make up my mind! And knitting with bigger needles (well, bigger than 3mm) - it's overrated!

I think I may have forgotten to mention what the Jamieson's yarn bundle I recently acquired is for (a couple of posts ago). It's for a pattern Alice Starmore did for the Fall 1994 edition of Vogue Knitting. I haven't been able to find a picture of it on the Internet, so I'll have to scan it at some point. If you do have a copy of that magazine - the Jamieson's colours will have it turn out a bit darker than shown in the original Campion. I was going to start it up in January...but something else has caught my eye!!! More on that later...

{{{break while Brigitte feeds Little Dudes}}}

The way they inhale their dinner, you'd think they haven't eaten in days.

Of course, now that I've resorted to refrigerating my tomatoes, Gandalf can't supplement his diet with produce. It's Florida orange time, and luckily he has no opposable thumbs to grasp the oranges and chomp down on them. I'm not a big fruit eater (although I love nearly all vegetables) so the ones I do eat - I LOVE. I do my own version of inhaling when it comes to Sunkist oranges. Yum yum yum!

I had a cute little picture of Gandalf, but, as you can see, Blogger is not co-operating. He's had "the talk" with Atticus... about going to the "V-e-t" next week for the snip-snip.

*sigh* They grow up so quickly.