Knitter in the Kitchen

…is coming more slowly than I planned, and I ran into a couple of minor issues.

First is that I did an absolutely horrible job with the armholes…and this is one of the better ones!

So I had to “fix” them…I’ll use the word “fix” loosely here, since what I did may or may not be considered a true remedy to the problem. I just attempted to close the gaps a bit.

Then I noticed that there is some weird bunching where I wove in the ends…am I pulling the yarn too tight? I don’t seem to have this problem with wool.

Lastly, I ran into this near the end of a ball:

In spite of these issues, I’m enjoying the project:

My goal is to finish Tivoli by the end of next week. I’m not working on anything else at the moment (other than my socks here and there), so hopefully I’ll meet my goal!

Yay, another scarf is off the needles!

This ends my season of Christmas gift knitting. Now it’s time to move on to the Tivoli Tee!

I celebrated my birthday a few days ago, and DH bought me this from my wish list:

It is the Strauch Jumbo Ball Winder. I tried it out already, and it works very well! The center-pull ball is great, and I like how the winder looks next to my Oregon Woodworker swift. Yay!

Yay, the ribbed scarf is done!

Here is DH modeling it for me:

Doesn’t the scarf look lovely with the cut-off shirt? It’s not quite scarf weather here yet…the high yesterday was 86 degrees.

While I am happy with the scarf, I have made a resolution. No more 2×2 ribbed scarves, and no more double seed stitch scarves. From January 2005 until now, I have knit two 2×2 ribbed scarves and two double seed stitch scarves. All four have been with Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran. While I am a fan of this yarn, and while I really like ribbing and double seed stitch, I must admit that I am getting really bored with knitting long scarves in these patterns. I realized this about three-quarters of the way through the red ribbed scarf for DH. I wonder where my brain was when I decided to knit a second ribbed scarf for DH? Hello??? I could have at least tried a different pattern! So no more! Gotta move out of my comfort zone!

A couple of weeks ago, I completed Sophie Bag #2, which will be a Christmas gift for my sister-in-law.

I made several unsuccessful attempts to line Sophie Bag #1. After wasting fabric with my failed attempts, I decided to take a bag-lining class from Knitique in November. I’m looking forward to getting these two bags truly finished!

There isn’t much knitting news to report. I have been feeling very overwhelmed with having multiple projects on the needles. I feel like I’m not making much progress with anything. I decided that I would finish DH’s ribbed scarf, the ZigZag modular scarf for my sister, and the Tivoli tee before moving on to the Kepler, Freida, and Salina sweaters. It was a hard decision to make, because I’m so excited about knitting the sweaters, but I am really bothered by the fact that I’m not finishing anything. I really, really need to switch to a one-project-at-a-time approach!

In cooking news, DH and I recently tried a Pasta Primavera recipe from Cooking Light’s Superfast Weeknight Dinners. I was a little bit skeptical about whether I would like it (can you really make pasta sauce from just a little bit of white wine, whipping cream, and lemon juice?), but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the dish was really yummy! And the answer to the question is yes, you can make pasta sauce with just a bit of white wine, whipping cream, and lemon juice!

Many thanks to our friend Jeannie for giving us the wonderful pan that fits an entire pound of pasta plus veggies!

Lastly, thanks to everyone who looked at my de-stashing sale. I have added several more items and reduced a few prices, so please take a look.

Have a wonderful week!