Is that...? Could it be...?

a SWATCH???

Yes ladies and gentlemen (although, I don't know... are there any gentlemen who come by here? I haven't heard from you if you do... ) that is a swatch. I, knitter-who-doesn't-like-to-swatch-even-though-I-know-I-should, have swatched for Alice. This is how dedicated I am to participating in the (Knitting) Olympics! I SWATCHED!!! (although, as I type this I realize I didn't actually check gauge. I'll go do that. Wait here)

***hold music***

Whoo HOO!! Gauge acheived. I'm totally set.

Although, I'm not totally convince of the colors. Most of the time I think they look good together (although the pic shows a bit bluer than the reality. It's really sort of a light sage and a dark olive ) but then the next time I look at it I'm not totally sure. I'm also not sure how it will look on me, given that I rarely stray from black/grey/beige or sometimes blue. I have some of the same yarn in a dark beige, which may end up taking the place of the light sage... or it might not. (I'm not so good with decisions. I'll likely decide as I'm knitting it).

The yarn is from the mind boggling generous stash I got from The Yarn Lady.

Also, there has been knitting on the 70's kitchen Jaywalker sock.

I was so excited to get past the heel. I decided to go with the heel as written, which was a k1, sl1. I had never done this type before and was intrigued by the ridged, sturdy fabric it produced. I'm still not a big fan of the gusseted heel, but it's not so bad...

The first pic was taken at 10:00 this morning. The second one was taken at 12:00 (noon) after knitting and blog reading off and on for a couple of hours. The reason I post both pics? To remind myself that if I would just KNIT the things I would be done already!!! I have tended to set them aside in favor of other projects.

Like:

Last Saturday I was going through the pile of yarn stash bin and found an 80% completed Lace Leaf Pullover. Why 80%? you ask. Well, I attached one of the sleeves, tried it on and realized that I didn't like the neck or how it was going to fit. So I stopped knitting it. And banished the pieces to the big freaking pile of yarn stash bin. I looked at it last Saturday and decided to frog it. As I was frogging I realized that I liked the bottom part, so decided to re-do it, add some shaping and make it a v-neck. Voila (totally bilingual Canadian, eh?)!

Yarn: recycled store-bought turtleneck that I rarely wore, being that it was a turtleneck and I can't seem to wear turtlenecks without feeling like I'm being strangled. A blend of wool and acrylic. Washable! Yay!
Pattern: 50% Teva Durham's Lace Leaf Pullover, 50% my usual wing-it raglan sleeve v-neck. (Yes I know I'm stuck in the v-neck rut)

The Alpaca V-neck is continuing nicely, but progress pics are not too interesting at this stage (unlike the 2 pics of the sock, ehem... ). I'll probably finish it soon and will post a pic when it's done.

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions about replying to comments. I'm trying to become a better reciprocal blog-commenter, I'll work on it.

Oh, and Simone, if you stop by again: HI! Nice to hear from you. I totally remember you. The last time I was at the LYS I was thinking about your Mariah and trying to remember the yarn you used. Thanks for reminding me!

I just re-read Genia's comment about her haircut experience and I am still laughing about it. WHY did they make you STAND??? so funny!