Now, this is where I groan and banish myself to Xanth for making a horrible, horrible pun. But I *DO* have ribbing to share, and I’m right proud of it. But first, I wanted to share the finished hat/cardigan set that I was showing off the cardigan of last time:

The hat knitted up much faster than I realized it would, which is sort of great — it meant that I got to finish something quickly, hee hee. The seam (shown in the first shot) isn’t 100% perfect and straight, but it’s a clean mattress stitch otherwise. As someone in my Stitch ‘n Bitch group suggested, it would have probably aligned even better had I started the seam at the bottom and worked up. But, I reckon, it’s not bad as is.

So then, on to the next project in the book. It’s yet another little person cardigan, and it’s been a headache since the start. This book doesn’t really give good enough guidance on what wool to use, so I had to make a few purchases and make several gauge squares. I’m using chunky (US bulky), but I’m thinking that maybe it should have been super-chunky (US super-bulky). It’s good enough for government work, as they say, and it’s knitting up quite nicely.

But first, I had to figure out the horror that is corrugated rib. There is a total lack of left-handed tutorial for it online, so I had to spend a few hours experimenting. After all, I can change colours, and I can rib, so i should be able to combine the two, right?

I eventually got the hang of it; the trick is to make sure you carry the contrasting colour wool along the same side as the main colour. So if you’re purling the main colour, you keep the contrasting colour to the front when you’re not working on it:

And even though I made a few errors (like casting on two too few/two too many stitches in a row), the back is completed, and the open stitches on the top are awkwardly held together with safety pins. I thought I’d be able to pick up a stitch holder from the pharmacy when I went to pick up my prescription, but I was wrong on that count.

The pattern makes me giggle and think of Daleks slightly; too bad I didn’t look up how to do bobbles until too late, ha ha. Whatever the case, I can take pride in figuring out yet another semi-complicated bit of knitting without my brain shutting down. Yes, it took a few hours of experimenting to get it right, but that my brain was willing to be quiet and still and not so bipolar to let me do that is still amazing. Oh sure, I still have to use the power of Complaining to the Internet+3 to vent my frustration and clear my brain a bit, but that’s not exactly a dire thing either. It gives friends a chance to offer their wisdom (and I have a lot of wise knitting friends), it shares something going on in my life (however banal), and um… something something. My train of thought derailed; I can only blame that on the glorious smell of banana bread baking downstairs. *smiles*

I hope everyone is doing well this last day of September!

<3