I'm BACK....

I've been to the "frog pond" and back...

I had to rip my Sahara, I tried it on after I joined the front and back, and it was way too small (I refuse to believe that I gained that much weight over X'mas!). I did my swatch with KP Options #6, and the stitch gauge was right on, but not the row gauge, that was why I decided to follow the pattern by inches. After I saw my sis's Sahara WIP, I can see my froggie friend is waving at me...

I love my KP Option needles, I really do, I guess I'm just having bad luck with it. Somehow I decided to use my BOYE knitting gauge ruler to measure the needles I was using, I couldn't believe it, it fits right through the size 5 hole!! How can it be? I checked all the needles before I made that call to the Knit Picks, I know I have all the correct needles. Then I remembered I had another gauge ruler from a different company, I test it, it fits the size 6 hole. Then I thought, it doesn't really matter what size needles I use, as long as I get gauge, I should be fine! ~long sigh~ Well, I kept staring at my Sahara, stare at it won't fix it. Okay, okay my froggie friend, I'm coming....this was Jan. 5. After 3 days I was back to where I was before the rip, this time I switched to #7 needles (perfect gauge swatch), it fits much better (can't say perfectly yet).

So far, I've finished the body and knitting the neck band as of now.

I have no problem with the Diamond rib pattern, they are easy to memorize, but the k3tog tbl and p3tog tbl are not easy to do, especially with this silk yarn so splitty, can't wait to finish that neck band (all that p3tog tbl)! I want to finish the neck band tonight, so I can do the sleeves on the plane tomorrow (ha, that's if my son lets me...good luck to me!).

Casted on for Sahara

I casted on for Sahara on Jan. 1, this is a mini kal between me and my sister. I casted on while we were sitting in the car waiting to exit the Navy Pier parking garage ^0^, the girls was watching movie, I was knitting, poor hubby!

I'm using Tilli Tomas Pure & Simple in color Aqua Zing, I bought it from Sarah before the whole messy pricing situation started. I got gauge using Knitpicks Option #6 needles, my swatch was 22 sts/30 rows before blocking, I guess I'll be following the "inches" instructions not the "rows" instructions.

This is what I have so far, I'm knitting long sleeves version size S. I always have problem trying to decide what size to make, now this one suppose to have "negative ease" but this yarn stretches...I hope I chose the right size....crossing my fingers.

Happy New Year!

I still couldn't believe we went to Navy Pier for New Years' Eve!! We haven't been "celebrating" New Years for the past few years, I mean with a little baby, we'd rather stay home, watch TV, play with the little one and just relax. This year, with the 2 teenagers staying here, they really really want to go somewhere and do the "count down". Where can they go? The only place I can think of was the Navy Pier, no age limit, tons of people and fireworks. After a long talk to dear hubby, finally he agreed to drive us to Navy Pier (hubby hates crowd and traffics). We left home around 10:30pm, there were almost no traffic at all, I thought it would probably takes us at least an hour to get to Nave Pier, but we got there in about half hour. And then we thought that we probably won't find parking, we did and it was in Navy Pier's parking garage (unbelievable, I think the "bad luck" had already gone somewhere else)! Everything was great, we did the "count down", watched the fireworks for 15 minutes, the girls were jumping, screaming, calling their friends to wish them Happy New Year, they were EXCITED!

So, 12:30AM we went back to our car, we parked on the 7th floor of the garage, we started to drive, got to the 5th floor, then a complete stop. We sat in the same spot for like 45 minutes, finally started to move slowly, it took an hour to leave the parking garage. Good thing was that the traffic coming home wasn't so bad, and the girls were watching a movie in the backseats the whole time (aren't we a great host or what?).

Well, the girls are going back to school tomorrow, let's hope their flight will be on-time, no more delay, no more cancellation. I need a break too! Most importantly, I need my knitting time back!