Red, red wine

I know I should save it until the end, but I can’t wait, so here it is:

It wasn’t like there was a lot to do on it since the last entry here, but we did go on a button finding expedition on Saturday. Mr. Penney helped me select the buttons for this jacket and the cardigan (which you will see later, in its current state.) Sunday afternoon, after some time spent at Wine in the Woods, the buttons got sewn on, the sweater went for a soak, and it just finished drying this morning. (I do like long sentences, don’t I?) It will get wrapped up tonight, as I see the expectant mother tomorrow. YEAH! One down, two to go!

Which brings me to:

This project is nearing completion as well. WOOHOO! Just another sleeve to knit and then some sewing. I did the worst of the sewing (for me, at least) this past Sunday, again, after WITW. That sewing was the collar.

This collar was the detail that made me decide to make the sweater, but it was also the part that caused me to the most anxiety because deciding whether I was just going to follow the instructions for the sweater (which I did) or try to just knit it directly onto the sweater to avoid the sewing (which is my least favorite part of any knitting project.) After this weekend, my solution will be to have at least a glass of wine before doing any sweater sewing. It seemed to work for me this weekend!

Finally, I have been playing around with something totally unrelated to the population explosion:

I plan on making a pair of socks for myself with this Trekking Pro Natura, which is 75% wool/25% bamboo. I am just making a test swatch to determine needle size and stitch pattern. Once I have decided on those things and determined the gauge, it will be ripped out and the actual socks will commence.

I am not sure about this yarn just yet. I am just not used to the feel. Part of it might be that I am just not used to the small needle size. (Right now I am trying out size 0US [2mm.]) It also might be that the feel of the bamboo is not to my taste. The only way to really tell though is to try it out. I hope I do like it, because I have another ball of it in a different colorway for another pair of socks….