More weekend updating

While I was hanging out with the in-laws, I also finished knitting the pieces for the Baby Delia sweater. It will be a cute little hot pink roll-neck sweater with a big heart on the front. The heart is a simple intarsia motif that I charted using a piece of knitter's graph paper.

Well, through several episodes of "knitter malfunction", I ended up ripping/tinking quite a bit of the sweater front. I made about every possible mistake that I could have made! I forgot to bind off for the armholes (ahem, twice!!), I dropped a stitch while talking and didn't notice until about 8 rows later, and I didn't follow my chart very well and ended up with a heart that would have extended to the baby's armpits!

But, I persevered and finished all 4 pieces. I'm bringing them on my car ride to Buffalo tomorrow, and hope to seam the sweater and knit the rollneck prior to the start of the Knitting Olympics.

Wanna see? Here are the pieces, my pattern, and a corner of the heart chart.

Clearly, I was sick and tired of my mistakes by this point. Hopefully, a pretty picture will follow on Monday!

I'm in between projects right now, though. The sweater just needs finishing. I still have a sock on the needles, but it's my "travel" project more than a "sit and knit while watching tv" project. I was bored of size 0 needles, so I went in the opposite direction. I cast on for a quick kids' charity hat yesterday, while being chauffeured to work by my husband. It took me less than an hour to knit, and about 15 more minutes to make the pompom on my lunch hour. At least 5 of those minutes were spent scouring my office supply closet for suitable pom-pom making cardboard and scissors.

Here is my teddy bear, Baby, modelling the hat.

(FYI, my teddy has a BIG head!)

Project Specs:

Yarn: Patons Melody (the ball band says "quick and cozy" -- no kidding!)
Fiber: 68% acrylic, 32% nylon
Color: 00908, pastel clouds variegated
Gauge: 8 or 9 sts/4 in
Needles: Size 15, 16" addi turbo, and size 15 Crystal Palace bamboo DPN's for crown.

Pattern: Cast on 36 sts. Knit 2 rows k2p2 rib. Switch to stockinette. Knit until it seems long enough. Use 8-point decrease for crown. Make a pom-pom with every remaining scrap of yarn.

This one's going to Dulaan...