Lots of things to talk about, most not very connected with each other. I’ve been on “vacation” back home in Mississippi, and didn’t have access to a computer that plays well with others (or with the camera, for that matter) so I’ve been a little out of touch. It was a really strange trip home — it’s the first time I’ve been back to the Mississippi coast since right after Katrina. Seven months later, I would have hoped to see more progress in rebuilding. While there has been a lot of recovery — the devastation was so very large-scale, that there is still so much left devastated. It was, for me, a very disheartening trip.

I did get some knitting done, though not as much as I would have hoped since my son decided to take the week at Grandma’s to be possessed by some wild hellion child (or, he was really thrown out of whack by traveling so far from home without Daddy and having his routines completely messed with, take your pick) and I fell into bed exhausted every night after running herd on him every second of every day. I did finish the body of my Rogue:

And managed to make a (very little) progress on the hood:

I’m pretty happy, still, with how this is going, though right now I’m a little paranoid. The body is a little too small around and more than a little too short (though not quite a LOT too short, more than just a little). My rational brain is working overtime to reassure my emotional brain that this is OKAY. See, I made gauge swatches, and I washed and blocked those gauge swatches, and I know that this sweater is going to grow — pretty significantly, even — once it’s blocked. I know that my sleeves were right on (maybe a teeny tiny smidgen too big, even) after blocking even though they were far too small before blocking. I know these things, but when I put what my DH is calling my “weird vest looking thing” on and it’s so small, my poor little brain freaks out a little bit. But I’m smart. I know that it’s going to be okay. My gauge swatch will not have lied to me.

I have gone back to cabling without the cable needle for most of the cables. My brain and I finally got it figured out how to twist the cables the right way again after a review of Grumperina’s tutorial. I must have reviewed it a dozen times while I was making Trellis, but this time my brain finally gave in and let me remember how to make the twist in the right direction. (Which is a good thing, because I was beginning to feel very, very dumb and very, very frustrated, given that I had done it successfully in the past.) I don’t know how much time it’s actually saving me, but it makes me feel acocmplished. On the other hand, it makes me wish I were not using these Addi Turbo needles — their points are so NON-pointy! Who on earth things knitting needles that are THAT dull are a good idea? I find myself really wishing I’d gone with needles that had more of a point to them to “dig into” those stitches as I do the cables. At least next time I’ll know not to use the Addis for a project that involved cabling. (Or lace! I’m having nightmares just imagining trying to do lace with these things.)

In addition to working on Rogue, I also started a new project — my husband’s socks. S. has a pair of socks that he bought that he wears around the house in his pajamas to keep his feet warm, and we came up with the idea that I should knit him a similar pair so he will have more than one. (I don’t honestly remember whether I came up with the idea or he did, but it pleases both of us.) So I told him I would do that as his birthday gift (he didn’t want me to buy him anything, so this seemed like a good plan). He’s been getting a little impatient as I keep working on other things instead of his socks. (To be fair, his birthday is in January. Early January. He may have a point.) I had bought some sock yarn, but when I started knitting it up I decided that it was really too thin a fabric for the intended purpose. So I had to order some new yarn and wait for it to be shipped. It came in on Monday, and I immediately started on his sock. He was a little surpirsed that I started instead of continuing to work on my sweater, but I felt like I needed to throw him a bone.

The yarn is Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sport in the Blackwatch colorway. Can I just say . . . WOW? This is the first time I’ve knit with Lorna’s Laces yarn and I am loving it! Sooooo soft and yummy. I’m knitting it using a new pair of Bryspun double pointed needles — my first time using any of their needles, and so far I’m not sure what I think. I’ve only used bamboo or wood DPNs before, and getting used to the relative slipperiness of the needles is taking me a bit of effort. On the other hand, I love love love the points on these things — nothing blunt about them! Of course, I’m doing a simple k2p2 rib for the leg, which I don’t need the pointy points for, really, but I’m liking them anyway. The sock is not going as fast as I would like — what you see is all the progress I made in about an hour of sitting watching my son play outside — but I guess by now I should be resigned to the fact that I just knit really, really slowly. I’m tickled with the spiral-stripiness thing they’ve got going. I’m amused by such little things.

Nate has started to really get interested in my knitting. The other day he told me he was going to knit for me. He had two plastic rods in his hand, and told me they were knitting needles, and that he was going to make me a pair of socks. Then he said “OH! WAIT! I don’t have enough needles for socks; I will knit you a sweater because you can knit a sweater on only two needles.” Who knew that he paid that much attention? He “knit” for a minute, then ran off to his room and came back with five “needles.” He arranged four of them on the floor in a square and began poking at them with the fifth. “There. Now I am knitting you socks because I have enough needles to knit socks.” He really blows me away sometimes. Yesterday he asked me to teach him to knit. I know that, regardless of how bright I might think he is , trying to teach a 3-year-old to knit is just an exercise in frustration. But I figured there was no harm in showing him, so I got him so needles and yarn and helped him make a few stitches. He then demanded to be left alone, and this is the result:

In case you’re wondering, he’s working on a sweater for Mama.