Keith's sweater is finished!

I was determined to finish his sweater last night. He had mentioned that it had gotten quite cold recently, and he would need it. Yes, I can take a hint when I want to.

You may remember the debacle of the ruffly collar. I made some changes to avoid the ruffling. I was concerned about holes which is why I picked up too many stitches the first time. This time I picked up less, but I was careful of where I skipped them to ensure few, if any, holes along the pick up line. I went to a size smaller needle, a size 6. I switched from 1x1 ribbing to the 2x2 ribbing that the pattern used. (The first time I didn't consult the pattern and just did the 1x1 rib.) I knitted, added the contrast color, and bound off. It looks great. I turned that sweater inside out right then, wove in the last few ends, sewed the underarm seams, wove in those ends and looked with pride at the completed sweater.

I asked Keith to try it on. (A little explanation here. Saturday nights I hold as sacred knitting and Britcom watching nights. I sit on the bed and knit. Some nights Keith stays away, but other nights he comes in to join me and complain about them as he doesn't like them. Last night he got beneath the top cover of the bed to play video games on his phone and fuss just a little. Lily came to sleep snuggled up to him.) Thus, when I asked him to try it on, he said, "I'll do it tomorrow." I must admit that I was a little disappointed at that response. So I tried it on, then folded it up carefully and put it back into my knit bag. That's why there are no pictures yet.

I still had a couple of more shows to watch, so I decided to start a scarf. Yes, a scarf. All week long people have been coming to the store to buy Silk Garden. Apparently Yarn Harlot is knitting the Noro Striped Scarf, and that usually induces hordes of people to knit whatever she is knitting.

I've actually been thinking about knitting Noro Striped Socks, but this is the time of year to think about gift knitting. I know it's late to start doing that, but I only have a few to do. I went and looked at Yarn Harlot's blog, then at all the examples on Ravelry. Yesterday, I too jumped on that bandwagon and bought 4 balls of Silk Garden in good, manly colors. I started knitting on it last night, but I didn't make sure of the color contrast at my starting point. Although it is so lovely, it's not enough contrast. I'm pulling it out, cutting one of the balls to start at a different point, and starting over.

I'll post pictures later. I'm waiting for it to warm up a bit. It's 30 F outside right now, and I don't much feel like standing out there styling knitwear.