Knitting Thursday

First off - I finished my husband's sweater!  I'd wanted to finish it by Friday, because that was his birthday, but didn't get the neck finished until Saturday.  That was in part because I did the neck 3 times.  The first time I followed the pattern for the most part, though I'm not sure I picked up as many stitches as the designer indicated.  The ribbed part was fine, but the stockinette part was a bit tight, so I took that out and tried it with larger needles.  Still too tight, so I took it back down to the ribbing and bound off at that point.  I bound off a bit too tight at first, but then found a more elastic bind off and that worked great.  So all the ends are worked in, it fits, and I'm glad it's finished.

Saturday night I cast on for the Sherwood sweater for Kieran and left it at that.  I'm using some Sirdar Supersoft Aran in marina.  Sunday I picked it up and started on it, but had to take it out after a few rows because, despite checking it a couple of times, I ended up knitting a Möbius strip.  I do like knitting in the round, and I don't think I've ever gotten it twisted like that before.  Oh well, no matter.  I'd made another slight mistake anyway, so that's taken care of now, too.  I'm just a few rounds away from the armholes now, as it's knitting up quite fast.  There are a couple of mistakes that someone familiar with the pattern might notice, but most people won't.  I can be a perfectionist, but didn't feel the need to undo these particular mistakes, since they aren't huge or anything.  The main one was doing a right cross instead of a left cross on one round.  Speaking of the crosses, I'm actually doing those like true cables, as I actually find that easier and I like it better.

I also am using a trick I learnt from my mother.  While split-ring markers have their purpose, I like to use markers that are just round if I don't need the split ring part, but I can't find any of those in John Lewis.  When my parents were here, my mother pointed out that the marker she was using was actually the ring off a bra strap.  Since I happened to have a bra that didn't fit just lying around, I cut the straps and am using the rings as markers.  Brilliant.