Almost there!

My Jewels Carigan (aka Short-sleeved cardigan with ribbing) is nearing completion! It's all finished aside from the button bands, and the blocking that shall come before them. I've been procrastinating on the finishing because I didn't have my buttons in hand, but you can see them up there on the sweater. Here's a close-up: I got the buttons at Nancy's Sewing Basket in Seattle, which is a lovely shop. Not being a sewer, I'd not been in before, but they have a lovely selection of buttons and everyone there was very helpful. The buttons are simple, dark wood with light flecks, and I think they complement the yarn quite well. So, now onto the blocking and buttonband knitting! I hope to have this done by/over the weekend, but this week is quite busy so we'll see.

I also mentioned that I'd started a sock, knit with Monarch sock yarn in Purdy Plum. Here is the progress so far: I really like the way that it's striping, and the yarn is very nice to knit with. I believe it's the same base yarn as Socks that Rock, and it feels just as nice. I'm think I'm getting about 8 st/inch on size 2 needles. I'm about at the heel (small feet), so there's been a brief pause while I figure out how I want to do the heel. Have you noticed I'm all about pausing/procrastinating/abandoning projects when they're at a spot where something different must be done? I should get over that. My excuse for the socks is not really that I'm unsure about the heel, but mostly that I was knitting this while watching a movie on Sunday night, and I didn't want to deal with the heel whilst involved in the movie. That said, the movie was awful, so I should've just pressed on. In case you're curious, it was The Good Shepherd, which I had such high hopes for and was quite disappointed in. Dave and I agreed that we were both bored and falling asleep about 30 minutes in but neither of us wanted to bring it up in case the other was enjoying it! The acting was good but none of the characters were likable so it was difficult to get involved in the story. Just bland overall.

I've signed up for Sockapalooza Four, but I've not heard anything about it and haven't been able to log in and find out who I'll be making socks for. There is a blog, but I've not recieved the invite to it, and I've tried several times to log in and check my info, find my pal, etc, without success. It's pretty frustrating but I know I'm in since I found myself in the participants list! There are over 1000 of us, so I'm sure getting all the technical stuff sorted out is quite a pain, so I'm going to be patient. After all, the socks don't need to be done until August 2nd, so there's really no rush!