Progress Report (Day 1)

Ok, so I had a day of traveling in the car--just what did I get done of my ambitious packing?

1. I finished the front of the bulky cashmere vest:

I knit both the left and right sides at the same time (with two different balls). But when I was supposed to have 15 stitches on each side, I had 15 on one and 17 on the other. I worked out that I hadn't bound off two stitches at the armhole--right back where I started the day!!

So I ripped back the one side and did it right. Fortunately it was only about 20 minutes of extra knitting. It's a little ironic that part of why I do both halves at once is so that I can do the shaping at the same time and get it to match...

I didn't like how the cables that run along the neckline looked in the pattern so I changed them somewhat.

Instead of crossing every 4th row, I did it every 6th row. I like it better than the pattern, but I think it may have even worked to do it every 8th row. I don't want it to look much more twisted than the main braid cable. The two side cables will continue around the back and form the back neckline. It's a neat design feature.

I got to the point where I couldn't be sure whether the front was the same height as the back. It was impossible to measure accurately while in the car. I think I may have knit the front too long so I'll have to figure that out tonight so I can continue tomorrow when I'm back in the car.

2. Once I decided to put that away, I pulled out the lace coat. I decided to start with a provisional cast on over a long end:

Once I'm done this section, I'll pull out the tail (picking up the stitches) and cast off with the tail. As stated in a recent post, it's easier to get a neater and correctly-tensioned cast off than cast on. It's not really a lot of extra work either, so totally worth it.

I discovered that I ordered the wrong size needles. The "size" is correct (diameter), but I was looking for a 40" cable needle so that I could use the magic loop method on the smaller sections of the coat (like sleeves). Well, 16" cable needles are apparently 40 cm. So when I saw "40" and ordered them, I got about the shortest needle you can get. And I wanted the longest. The good news is that I can use them for some of the sections (like the hem band, which is the first piece). Of course the bad news is that I will still have to buy the longer needles.

The other good news is that these needles are more comfortable than the interchangeable set that I have. I've never like circular needles, but maybe I just don't have the right set yet.

The knitting itself went pretty well and I completed the first chart (24 rows) before it got too dark to comfortably read the chart:

The yarn doesn't really feel like much in the strand, but it sure is lovely to knit with.

3. Once I put the lace away, I pulled out the no-thinking-needed shawl and did a couple of sections before we arrived.

Well, three out of four projects worked on and I still have the trip home tomorrow (and time tonight while watching some football playoffs). Apparently my packing wasn't so out of line after all!