Yay #1:

Christmas shawl #2 is finished! I’m so glad it’s blocked and wrapped up now. Knitting three of these in one year is enough to burn anyone out, but as I was blocking it, I was taken once again by how totally awesome the pattern is. It’s great. I can’t knit it again for some time, but it’s great.

Yay #2:

A Queen Anne’s Scarf. It was an impulsive project – and even with my super slow crocheting skills, I finished it in 2 evenings. It was so super easy and addictive. I was really sad when I was done! I used a size H/5.0mm crochet hook and 2 balls (pretty much exactly) of Plymouth Royal Bamboo in Lilac. I think this was a great project for this sort of floppy yarn since crochet is so dense. It stands up nicely, and the finished product looks amazing. At least I think so!

And finally for the BOO. I finished all the knitting on my Manon. I blocked the pieces – I found a small problem. I didn’t take a picture of it being blocked since I was too pissed off, so I have highlighted the problem in the other picture I posted last week (click to make bigger):

I was alone when I discovered this mistake, but I assure you that profanity was used in great quantity, in varying degrees of extremity, and at great volume. I have no idea how it happened and I have not yet decided what to do. Without the dart on the one side, it’s about an inch shorter than the other side. I have no idea how noticeable it will be. As it’s blocked and should hang nicely now, I may baste it up quickly again and try it on to see if this is going to be a problem. If it is, I have two options: rip back and reknit the entire bloody right front, or cut it, knit the short row section and graft. I have knitted up a swatch to see if cutting and grafting is a viable option, but I haven’t done it yet. I’m worried the most about the 1×1 ribbing and the grafting being uneven. I’ve heard that it’s usually off by half a stitch, but from what I have read, that usually only applies if you’re trying to attach ribbing end-to-end rather than in sequence. I don’t know. I really had hoped to wear this for Christmas, but I don’t foresee myself having the patience before the 25th to test my theory. Either way, I’m not leaving it too long because I just want to FINISH a sweater before the end of the year. I can’t sideline this again. I am really hoping for better knitting karma for 2009 because it pretty much sucked for 2008.