The Joy of Giant Balls of Yarn

There are some big wins around here, even while I am feeling ornery.  My Work Sock sweater is one of those.  

It looks so very good.  And I am not even worried about running out of yarn! From the armscye, to the current length is 9 inches!  Forever 5 inch measuring has been well defeated.  Almost ready for the ribbing I plan.  

Lots left on my current giant ball and more than enough for sleeves plus on the last ball. 

I cannot tell you how much fun it is working from these giant Australian balls of yarn.  Would that all yarn came in giant balls.  When I bought this yarn, I thought it would be a one off buy, but I don't know.  There may be more Bendigo yarn in my future just for the pleasure of the giant balls.  Irresponsible with the size of my stash but there it is.  I am utterly in love with Bendigo Wollen Mills Classic.

I have a good full day of work before I switch out to knit the sleeves.  I think.  I am concerned (though I don't really know why) about running out of the cream and red yarn I will use on the ribbing.  

There is 400 metres on each ball.  Surely that is plenty for cuffs, neck and bottom rib?  I'm not worried about the red.  There will be plenty of red but the cream might get tight.  My plan is to knit the neck band and sleeve cuffs first and then to knit the bottom rib so that if the cream is running low, I can work right to the bitter end.  

It's probably getting to be time for my coffee.  Time to get some chores done too.  I would much rather be knitting but chores are important too.  Or so I've been told.  

Ornery

I felt ornery on Sunday morning.  Ornery requires something different. Usually that means I start something new but this time, it took me in an unusual, for me, direction.  

I finished the chairpad.  

In case you didn't hear that...I.  Finished.  The. Chairpad.  

I had a very small bit of yarn in the bucket and the bin that all the chairpad yarns were in was overflowing with stuff that did not need to be there.  I just wanted it all gone.  So I worked till the yarn was gone.  Who knew that three rows of crochet could make me feel so good.  It's over.  There is only a single bag of mixed yarns remaining.  

It's enough for a few hats holding yarns double stranded or a couple pairs of mittens. Or a chair pad.  Yuck.  I am done chair pads.

Most of that bag of yarn is the remains of the Flea sweater.  But the other 5600 metres of Palette is now chairpads.  Yay me.

I did a try on of  the yellow sweater.  Hmmmm.  Might need to go back and make fewer stitches at the underarms.  The number of stitches seems a bit excessive somehow.  A day or two will help me see it more realistically.  

The other thing I need to do is rip back my shawl.  I really just need a triangle.  The wider shallower shawl won't quite give me what I need for just over my shoulders.  

So back to the drawing board.  It's okay though.  It's not that far along and it won't kill me.  

Above all this, my Work Sock sweater is going brilliantly.  It is at 7 inches!  The measuring behaved!  Only a few more inches and I will be ready for body ribbing. Yippee.  

All in all, an ornery Sunday morning led me to a decent weekend.  It was not perfect but you don't learn from perfect.  Mistakes are how we learn and I had my share theses last few days.  It's time for coffee and time to get down to knitting.

Sweaters can be mean

Walter Koenig died the other day.  That made me sad.  Patrick Stewart died yesterday.  That makes me even sadder.  Star Trek has always been a family show for me.  I remember watching it with my brother on the basement TV when we were kids.  It was amazing.  And when my own sons were kids, Star Trek TNG was on on Fridays and that was a night we all crowded around the TV, ate our version of taco salad and were just family, hanging out.  I was a fan of both men.  We all have our time and so it goes.  Sigh.

I made it to several increase rounds on my sweater.  I put in a progress keeper and I am glad I did.  It measured 5 inches three days ago and again yesterday.  I don't want to measure it again because the darn thing will probably read 5 inches even though I did a lot of work yesterday.  Harumph.

Sweaters can be mean like that.  

I might knit on socks today.  Or maybe on my long in progress Musselburgh.  Not sure though.  I might stick with the sweater because I am starting to feel like the edging is not far away.  I am far away but in my head, I am already seeing the borders, which make a farmer sock, work sock or sock monkey sock the brilliant thing that it is.