Sometimes you knit, sometimes you get kicked

That's how the INXS song goes, right? (no, it's not.)

I worked feverishly (well, that might be an overstatement) on the alpaca v-neck on the weekend. I was so excited about it. I couldn't wait to wear it.

the color is actually quite a bit darker than this picture suggests.

Looks good, huh? Looks complete, huh?


Um. See that? Up there? The end of the yarn? And by "end" I mean: THAT IS THE END OF THE YARN! As in: That is ALL of the yarn. I have to do 10 more rows. TEN. 1 - 0. I turned my apartment upside down in the vague and unwarranted hope that I might have put a ball of this alpaca somewhere else (I lost count of how many balls I used in the sweater). That'll teach me for making sure the body was the right length! If I was more willing to live with a too-short sweater, I would have enough. Picky, picky Lori...

Argh.

So, the alpaca v-neck was in time out while I tried to figure out what to do. I consoled myself as best I knew how:

cheesy faux artsy shadowy photo brought to you by the fact that I was able to be home for lunch today (i.e. in the daylight hours) b/c i had to go to a seminar on customer service, in which I learned zero new facts about customer service and had reinforced that I was doing all the right things as far as my customers were concerned. I did get some good ideas for dealing with my stress/attitude as pertains to my co-workers and the stresses in that area. I could go on but this little aside is getting really long.

One Jaywalker sock done, the other is about 2 inches into the leg (thanks to down-time in the conference). I was knitting on it while waiting for a session to start and the instructor came by and asked what I was working on. I said "A sock" and he said "Oh. Great! It looks like petit point." ?? What? I don't even really know what petit point is (I think it is some type of cross stitch??).

I also consoled myself with:

The front for a cabled cardigan from a Vogue Knitting from last winter (the Holiday issue I think). I'm using Custom Woolen Mills Mule Spinner 2ply in color #03(thanks for reminding me of the name Simone! I found it at the LYS the day after you left the name in the comments!!) (see, I read the comments! I can mention the comments! I'm just not very consistent with it yet... sorry) The yarn is very rustic feeling (I can't think of a better way to put it) and compared to the alpaca it feels like straw, and even has some straw bits in it! However, roughness aside, I love how this looks.

I knit the ribbing the way the pattern was written and started the cable rows, only to realize that there was a mistake in the chart. I was going to tink back but I realized that the way the ribbing was written (3x3) did NOT flow into the cables at all, and looked kind of funny. I frogged the whole thing and decided to make my ribbing rows a downward extension of the beginning of the cables. I like it much better this way.

I have also knit about 6 inches of the back, but it is just 3x3 ribbing, and, this is long enough as it is. Good TV knitting, not so interesting for the blog. Also, the experience of the alpaca v-neck led me to go back to the LYS today (since I was in the area during store hours due to the seminar) and get emergency back up Mule Spinner, just in case

So, the alpaca v-neck. I took a strand of the alpaca that I had with me to the LYS in the hopes that I could find a really REALLY close match. No luck. I brought home a skein of the closest they had, as well as a skein of black. I'm only 10 rows from the end, so I'm going to try with the closest-they-had (which is a bit darker than what I had) and see how weird it looks. If it's too weird, I may just frog back to just after the arms were attached and do a band of black and then finish it out in the grey that I had.

After I weep softly in the corner for a while.