Pooling is a nifty thing!

So I have never knit a pair of socks and have no real desire to, which means that I have also never worked with hand-dyed sock yarn before. Working on my chevron scarf I've been fascinated by the ways the colors combine. I first cast on for this using five stitches on each side of the chevrons, and after knitting a few inches like that, I could tell that all the pink yarn was going to line up in a vertical column, all the orange, all the green, etc. So I frogged it and tried four stitches on each side (8 stitches fewer in all), and tada! No pooling!


In real life it's not this wobbly on the edges; it just needs to be blocked flat. That's my only news, aside from a visit from this guy:


Raymond. It looks like he's wearing a yellow tiara in this picture, but that's his octopus toy in the background. He loves to shake it really hard and growl. We just went for a walk and he's zonked. It's so nice to look down from your knitting and see this little dude on your foot:

Bristow progress and an observer

One Bristow arm is almost complete, thanks to a lovely Saturday morning NPR lineup. I'm really enjoying this cable pattern: it looks more complicated than it really is, and now that the increases are done there's even less thinking involved. By the way, I highly endorse starting a sweater with an arm: the novelty of a new project has kept this from seeming as tedious as other arms have been for me in the past.

I had some trouble finding a shadow-free spot to photograph it in this sunny winter afternoon light. And there was a little shadow trailing me around the apartment as I posed my work:

On the D. L.

Here's the update. Since the last post I did manage to finish one more thing: I made a tam to go with the Chronicles of Narnia sweater that I am sending to my friend Elisa. I had no baby to model it. Hence the stuffed Scottie. It's a little bit wacky and loud for the outfit, but I think it will suit Elisa, who is kind of into wacky and loud clothing. It's my first foray into tam knitting. I'm not thrilled with the center of it, which looks a little lumpy with a jog and with a center circle that is the same size as the flowers going around it, inadvertently.


If I were a better tam knitter I would know how to make the inside of my tam a nice flower. But for a last-minute scrap hat I think it's just fine. I added a little sprig thing to the center and it makes the center purple spot look less nipular.

Meanwhile, that might be the last knitting post in a little while because of two related factors. The first is that this guy is here for a while:


Raymond. Who is exceedingly curious about my knitting. And also not very disciplined about running in front of me with the leash, which led to my tripping over him in the park today, jamming my finger on my right hand. Tonight it hurt too much to knit (though I soldiered on through one row like the trouper I am), and I was so bummed because I had a lovely project all lined up for the whole evening: Bristow in my newly-died teal yarn, in front of the new episode of "Lost." Alas!

P.S. it is really hard to photograph a black dog! Especially one who is so adorably clingy that he won't let you back up too far away from him to take a picture. There's also nothing more lovely than sitting on your couch knitting while a scottie sleeps with his head on your foot.