And it was good. I decided to skip the “practice sock” (which is a huge thing for me!) and go ahead and make the sock with the little needles and the sock yarn.

I really liked the sock. I got much further along on the sock than is shown in the picture — turned the heel and got going along the foot — and then I tried it on.

Do you see where this is going yet?

I did knit a swatch to check my gauge. I did measure my foot. I really, really did, I promise. But apparently I had lost my brain somewhere in the process of translating the gauge + measurement into stitches to cast on.

Oh well. Frogging is an act of cleansing, right? Good for the soul? But I’m not working on the socks again just yet (although I was really enjoying them!).

Instead, I finally did what I planned to do a loooooong time ago (like, when I wrote my last entry) and cast on for the front of Nate-Tate’s sweater. I managed to get most of the bottom ribbing done while at the in-law’s for Easter yesterday, while my son had ENTIRELY too much chocolate and turned into a complete little maniac.

Just because he’s so cute, I’ll show you what he looked like before the chocolate/holiday/too-many-people-induced hysteria — while he was helping Daddy build his sandbox:

I will not show pictures of the aftermath, because, well — it’s just not pretty. I’ve never seen my child so — well, insane — as he was yesterday. Luckily, as of this morning, it’s better.

Anyway, so there is progress being made on the sweater front. Not only have I started the front, I also ripped out the bind-off on the back of the sweater and redid it, and it looks much better despite the fact that my dear, lovely, sweet husband said, upon inspection, “I don’t know, Carrie, it looks the same way that it did before to me. But whatever makes you happy.” WHATEVER MAKES ME HAPPY, indeed. So glad that he understands the rules, but I was hoping for a little more enthusiasm! I should have learned by now, but hey, I am nothing if not optimistic.

So, I got a comment on the last post that I made! Some lovely soul took pity on me and thought to leave a comment. Thank you so much, Terby; what a lovely thing to see! It makes me feel a little less like I’m talking to myself, and therefore, a little more like there a normal person. (HA!) You asked what pattern I’m using for Nater’s sweater. It’s one I got from a library book, and I don’t remember the name of the book or the publisher, so I’m not much help at all — but the title of the pattern (and I’m so totally embarrassed to admit this, and have made a solemn vow to myself and my husband to never, ever tell my son that he was made to wear a sweater with this awful appellation) is “Boy Band.” It’s a really cute little thing, that will have a zippered mock-turtle-type collar (if I’m talented enough to accomplish it), and it’s been a really fun and easy knit so far for my first sweater.

I am really surprised by how tickled I was to receive a comment. I have made mention before on the Knitty boards that I have a really, really, really hard time leaving comments on the blogs that I read, even though I have really enjoyed reading them, because I have some . . . shall we say “issues”? . . . with social anxiety, and for whatever reason, of all the stupid things, commenting on a blog seems to be one of the things that triggers them. But having now experienced the lovely warm squishy feeling of having someone leave a comment for me, I am going to make an even more serious effort to get over myself and start commenting.

FTR, I am over my pneumonia (finally!), Nate’s eardrum has ruptured again but he seems to be on the mend as well, so we are all well on our way to being healthy again even if we’re not quite there yet.

And now I am going to go actually do something about the state of my home. Scary proposition.

I got to spend most of the morning in the yarn shop, and it was just the most exciting thing! It astonishes me sometimes the little things that can excite me, and a whole morning in the yarn store is definitely one of them. I always have fun just wandering around in there — touching and flipping through books and just, in general, going into sensory overload. It was my third trip down there. I was looking with specific projects in mind this time, and I think I know what yarns I’ll be picking for the next few projects that I think I want to do.

I came away, in addition to my ideas, with the following things:

• a beginner’s pattern for socks, using worsted weight wool and size six needles, so that I can work on the construction of a sock before I start dealing with tiny yarn and tiny needles.
• some sock yarn and some size 3 bamboo DPNs for when I feel like tackling the tiny yarn and tiny (well, relatively, anyway) needles — the sock yarn is a gray color with very subtle variation and it’s gorgeous. My husband even commented on how soft it was and how much he liked it, which is really unusual — he doesn’t normally have anything to say but “how much did it cost?” about my yarn purchases.
• Knitting without Tears by Elizabeth Zimmerman, which I’ve been wanting to read for quite some time, but haven’t been able to find at the bookstore (I’m not really sure why I have such an aversion to ordering books online, but I do).
• a free skein of yarn and a pattern to make hats for the NICU at the local hospital, through a program that the LYS runs.

So, overall, I was very happy with the trip.

I have not managed to make much progress in my knitting; I have been too ill. My flu led to terrible bronchitis, which led to pneumonia. But, as reported in my last entry, I did manage to get both sleeves of Nate’s sweater done and they match. I’m proud of them, and now I have a photo:

I’m thinking I’ll cast on for the front of the sweater tonight. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get the thing finished over spring break (which is the week after next). I’ll be very excited when it’s done; I just really hope I can get it put together reasonably well.

Mom’s purse is going slooooowly. I’m almost 50″ into the 74″ long strip that forms the gusset of the purse and the doubled handle:

I’m starting to wonder if I’m ever going to get finished with even just this one part of this purse, and it is not even the biggest part! I think it would be easier if it weren’t so booooooooooring.

I am seriously considering switching over to carrying my yarn in my left hand. I keep reading about how much more efficient it is, and I am a sloooow knitter. I have played around with it in the last few days, and I don’t think it would be very hard to make the switch. I also think it would help me to loosen up some — I knit very tightly carrying the yarn in my right hand, but when I carry it in my left hand (at least so far) it’s not quite so tight. Of course, it’s also not quite so even, but I think that would change with time and practice. I don’t want to change in the middle of the projects that I’m working on, because I’m pretty sure it’s going to change my gauge, but I think when I finish these to projects I might give it a really serious effort and see how comfortable I can get with it.

I read, maybe on the knitty boards but maybe on a blog, a conversation about “reading” your knitting recently. I started thinking about how much easier Nate’s sweater got when I stopped trying to count everything and starting looking at the knitting. I already knew how to tell knits and purls apart, so patterns like 2x2 ribbing are easy for me — just knit the knits and purl the purls. But Nate’s sweater is k5, p1 on the RS and k3, p3 on the wrong side (essentially, though the pattern is shifted on the back). About halfway through the back, I started to look for the pattern — I figured out that on the front, I knit until I reached a stretch of 3 purl stitches, and then I purled the one in the middle. On the back, every time I see a purl stitch, I purl it, the one before it, and the one after it. No counting involved, and it is so much easier to keep up with where I am! It is so much easier when you know how to read your knitting like that. I think if I had to count always, rather than figuring out the patterns of the knitting, I’d have given it up already. I remember seeing a lot of people saying, though, that they couldn’t tell the difference between a knit and a purl stitch. I would think that would make this hobby almost impossibly frustrating.

I have some complications as a result of the flu. I’m stuck with a sinus infection and a really terrible case of bronchitis. I’m not sure that my lungs are still going to be with me by the time it’s all said and done. My temperature has shot back up, my head is killing me, and I just can’t seem to make this cough slow down even a little bit. It’s pretty depressing. This is my third day in a row out from work, and I really couldn’t afford these days. I guess there’s not anything to be done about it, though. I’ll just continue to hack, and continue to knit through it. I am, at least, getting a lot of knitting done.

I finished the second sleeve for Nate’s sweater — so now I have two sleeves — and, miracle of miracles, they MATCH! They actually look if not identical, then very similar. (No photos today, because the head is hurting far too much to make that effort and to punish it that much.) I found myself, in my drugged up haze, spending a bit too much time wondering “When did I make those last increases — was it the last RS row, or the one before that?” and for whatever reason, I have a terrible finding my increases when I look at my knitting. So I think I’m going to, from now on, use Maggie Righetti’s trick that she recommends in her book Knitting in Plain English (which I’ve decided, after having kept it from the library for a very long time, that I’m probably going to purchase sooner rather than later — I really, really enjoyed the book!) of using safety pins to keep up with increases and decreases. I think it would have saved me from much frustration! The next step in the process of Nate’s sweater is to rip out the bind-off on the back and redo it, but I’m not ready to go there just quite yet, so that’s currently on the back burner.

On the front burner is Mom’s purse. It’s a garter stitch purse (from The Knit Stitch) and I was afraid it would get boring, but I’m really enjoying working with the yarn so far. It’s a ribbon yarn and I’m knitting it tighter than recommended to give a firm fabric (as directed in the pattern) and I am really, really liking the way it knits up. Good stuff so far, and a bright cheerful color. (I need bright and cheerful at this point!) I’m still not sure it isn’t going to get boring (the first piece of knitting is 74″ long. That’s longer than I am tall!!), but I’m relying on the intermittent excitement of having to maneuver to keep my hacked up lungs from making it a mess to break up the boredom.

The strap of the purse (the part I’m working on now) uses a slip stitch at the beginning of every row as a selvedge stitch. This is the first pattern I’ve worked that calls for a selvedge stitch, and I must say that I am amazed at how much neater the thing is looking. Very impressive! I may even start trying to incorporate some selvedge stitches into patterns that don’t ask for them; I like the clean-edged look of it that much.

I do think I’m going to reset my “limit” for projects on the needles to three instead of two. Two just feels entirely too limiting. (I never, ever, ever had more than one counted cross stitch project going at once - I wonder why all he sudden two projects seems so restrictive?) I have Nate’s sweater and Mom’s purse going, and there are at least three more projects that I can think of that I’d like to start RIGHT NOW. Of course, I won’t, but I WANT to.

I think my mother-in-law and I are going to go down to the yarn store this weekend and I am going to pick up some sock yarn and some smaller DPNs and cast on for a pair of socks. That’ll be my third on the needles project. I just really want to learn to do socks; it seems so very exciiting nd I think I’d loooove to have a pair of handmade socks! Now I just have to find a good beginner’s pattern for socks to get started with . . .

The words on the screen have started to dance around; think that’s a pretty good indication that it’s time to go find somethinge else to do.