UGH.

I started Paloma last night. I ripped Paloma out 4 times. I have been knitting for over 20 years. But can I figure out what I did wrong? Nope. When you do the math on the stitch pattern, it decreases the number of stitches, but overall I'm supposed to be increasing. If you don't knit, you have no idea what I'm talking about. If you do knit, you're equally confused. The only thing I can think of is that when it says do a purl stitch, it should be knit. That way, the yarn over makes up for the 2 stitches knit together.
But there aren't any errata for this pattern anywhere that I can find! And nobody on Ravelry has said anything about it. I left a comment and hopefully someone will be able to help.
So in the meantime, I started Louisa. No issues at all with Louisa! No, not quite. I cast on 1 size, then measured it and decided that it was going to be too big after all, so I ripped it out and cast on again for the smaller size. 9mm needles and chunky yarn (well, actually 2 strands of dk held together) - this is going to be a breeze!

Decisions, Decisions

The life of an ADD knitter. I got it in my head to work on Donegal. Still can't find the bag with all the yarns in it. But, you see, therein lies the problem.
I now want to work on something new.
My Triinu scarf is coming along wonderfully. It's just challenging enough.
I started a new jacket for my niece's birthday, but it's in fairly chunky wool (by my standards, anyway) and on 5mm needles, so it will be ready in plenty of time for her Easterish birthday.
Then I spied this on my bookshelf:

I had started a cute cardigan from this book last summer, but the yarn was so slippery that I hated it. I couldn't get an even tension with it, and I have never in my life, even as a beginner knitter, had problems with my tension. So it got frogged. Note the many post-it notes sticking out of the top of the book, marking patterns I want to do. One of the ladies at Knitting Three Together today noticed that I have them all marked except 3 or 4. LOL!

So I was flipping through it and decided on 2 patterns that I'd like to try first. I figured I'd go to the store and see what I could find.
You guessed it, I came out with yarn for them both.

The first is Paloma. It's a lovely top-down tee with a ribbon laced through the neck. One of the finished pieces on Ravelry has the ribbon tied at the front shoulder instead of the back, which I quite like. I bought some lovely yarn I'd never heard of - Rozetti Soft Payette . It's acrylic, which I don't usually use, but it's soft and lovely and has sequins!!!! Can't go wrong with sequins.


The second pattern is Louisa. It's a lovely long tunic, done in a chunky yarn but in a lace pattern so it doesn't seem so chunky. In the book it's done in Louisa Harding's Thalia, which I drooled over, but has been discontinued. Boo hoo. So the ladies at the store suggested using a dk, doubled. And since it's for summer, I got a cotton. Cabin Fever Cotton Tweed. It's actually a cotton/acrylic blend, so it won't have the weight and dragging down that a pure cotton in this kind of garment would have. The pink is a much warmer shade in person that it appears in the picture.

So now I just need to decide which one to do first! Why do I have the feeling that I'll be flipping a coin?

But of course

I was in the mood for some colour work, so I thought I'd pick up Donegal and finish off the sleeve & neck for my dad.
I started this sweater ages ago. It was huge, so I ripped it out and started again. It was still huge, even before my weight loss, so it was hibernating. I figured it would be my bumming around sweater. A slightly fancy one. But then when my dad was up in the fall, I had him try it on. It fits him perfectly and he actually likes it!
And now, of course, I can't find the bag that has the wool for it. I did some massive cleaning a while back, and put the stash in a few places, but that bag is nowhere to be found.
This is going to drive me nuts.

Stop the insanity!!

This is my beautiful new scarf in progress. It's made of incredibly gorgeous, hand dyed, made-in-Canada silk. It weighs next to nothing and feels amazing. I can't even describe it. And the flash does not do the colour justice.
See those little blobs? The pattern of 3 blobs in a triangle? They're called nupps. Rhymes with soup. They serve 2 purposes. 1: They make a lovely pattern, and 2: You know the item is hand knit, because a knitting machine cannot reproduce them. Ah, those wiley Estonians.
I think there needs to be a 3rd nupp purpose: to drive the knitter insane. In order to make a nupp, you knit into the same stitch anywhere from 5 to 9 times, depending on the fineness of the yarn. Then, on the wrong side, you purl all those stitches together. In this pattern, it's 7 stitch nupps. The knitting isn't the problem. It's the purling them all together that's maddening!! But, I think that after 4 chart rounds I'm finally making the nupp loose enough that purling them together isn't as painful as it was to begin with. And I'm not missing any of the stitches now. Knock wood.
I'm feeling about this scarf the same way I feel about the chicken & asparagus risotto I made last night for dinner. It's going to take me a long time, but damn, it's going to be rewarding when it's done!!
Damn. Now I'm hungry. Mmmm, risotto.....