Can you believe I went to La Lana Wools and didn't buy ANYTHING? Although, it was not for lack of desire. It's just that everything I wanted was a large purchase and it was not a good time for that. So I took notes for future mail orders instead. Meanwhile, I tried on the Valentina Devine jacket from the Winter VK (yes, the ACTUAL jacket photographed in the magazine) because it is ever so much prettier than the picture. The colors are all washed out in the mag photo. It actually has peach, fuchsia and yellow streaks in it, can you believe it?

I got the replacement copy of the Wedge Pullover pattern I left in the Albuquerque airport and am now almost done with the sweater. I have a little bit of seaming to do and, of course, the ENDS. The thing has quite a bit of torso torque as a result of the bias wedges, so I am anxious to see how it turns out after post-assembly wet-blocking.

Oh, and yesterday I weighed in at Weight Watchers and I have now lost all my New Mexican vacation weight gain. My leader says it's about time to set goal. I still wanted to lose nineteen more pounds, but the WW staff are dubious.

I'm terribly cross with myself. I took a brand new project, the Reynolds Odyssey Wedge Pullover, on vacation to New Mexico, and apparently left the pattern in the Albuquerque airport. So now I've got a bagful of lovely green yarn and no pattern. At least I got far enough on the back of the sweater during the flights that I can keep going without the pattern until I get to the neck and shoulder shaping. Then I guess I have to put it on holders and start the front.

On the bright side, there is a yarn shop that I can see the roof of from the hotel window. It is across the street and two doors down. Unfortunately it was closed today and tomorrow so I have to wait until Tuesday to check it out. Oops, make that Wednesday; I think we're going to drive up to Taos for the day Tuesday, so I'll "only" get to go to La Lana Wools that day. Bwa-ha-ha.

Meanwhile, CH has a new knitted vest. It's the Cabled Rib Vest from Men in Knits, out of Cascade 220 in a medium gray with heavy red and green heathering. I sewed the buttons on it this morning. I knit it right in front of him and he didn't even notice (although he was a bit befuddled when I was insistent that he render an opinion on buttons).

Today I experienced a knitter's true Moment of Glory. I wore my long hooded crocheted coat to the Fashion Mall and the very swishy sales clerk came up to me and said: "Can I help you with anything? Oh, you look SOOOO cute this evening-- that coat is DARLING! Where did you GET that?" I told him I made it and he said, "Oh, you did NOT-- I am SO impressed!" and fondled the bobbles.

I am kicking projects around like footballs this month. The Dashing Diamond Pullover is finished, sort of, but it turned out to be so much of a bust that I may rip the whole thing. First, I had to re-engineer the top of it because the armholes were way too deep. Then, even though I took my standard two inches off the sleeves, they ended up being outrageously long. I think this was deliberate on the part of the designer; however, in the photo, you can't see the model's hands, so who knows? Personally, I think over-long sleeves only look good on tall people, and besides, they interfere with my knitting. And as a last annoyance, the A-line is just too wide at the bottom. Even I don't need six inches of difference between bust and hip measurement anymore.

After that, I spent two weeks cranking out the Lush Shaped Cardigan from Classic Elite's Noble Fibers booklet. In stark contrast to the previous project, I'm terribly happy with the finished object. It's all warm and pink and fuzzy and it fits great. It's very low-cut, so I wear a camisole underneath it to work. My rock-star alter ego wears it out on the town sans camisole for the naughty librarian look.

Then I started Tilt. I've done the lower body sections and one of the back yokes. I fall maddeningly between sizes but I think I can adjust the width several inches during the blocking process. The yoke charts require quite a lot of concentration, though, and I've learned not to try to work on it while chatting or watching TV. I'm looking forward to the sleeves.

On a short break from Tilt, I spent two days knitting a K1,P1 rib scarf out of three balls of #40 Almond Tree Diakeito Diamusee. The browns, cream, and roses are gorgeous with my brown suede jacket.

Stash triumph!

I have been coveting the Dashing Diamond Pullover ever since the fall issue of Cast On came out. However, I was trying to prioritize sweaters which could be knit from stash, so I hadn't ordered the Softwist Bulky for it. But then I was digging in the Yarn Room one morning and I ran across the bags of Classic Elite Follies I had acquired some time ago from elann.com, and I got to thinking. The suggested gauge for Follies is 18 stitches/4", whereas Softwist Bulky is labeled at 16 stitches/4". However, Follies is a rayon/alpaca blend, and Softwist Bulky is a rayon/wool blend, hence they ought to have somewhat similar draping qualities; and they're both around 65-70 yards per 50 gram ball. So I looked at the Dashing Diamond instructions again, and lo and behold, it calls for knitting at 17 stitches/4". I gave it a go, and I got gauge. Now I have a front and a back and half a sleeve.

Because this design is by Norah Gaughan, who I worship and adore, I have not felt a need to make many changes. I used short rows to give it a slightly shirt-tailed hem, and I'm tremendously pleased with how that turned out. I changed the decrease technique at the V-neck to emphasize the knit stitches which are an extension of the cables, and because I have no fear of Wrong-Side Decreases, I decreased every three rows instead of alternating two and four as specified. Oh, and one last thing: I used a few short rows to make the neckband extensions turn a little more gracefully. I think maybe I should have lowered the center back neck with short rows also, but I don't think I'm going to reknit it.