Fail.

I've been working on my cropped cardigan and it was going really well...I learned how to do short-row shoulders, which I much prefer over the traditional stair-step shoulder method, and I'm loving the yarn and the fuzzy-comfy fabric that it makes in stockinette. I finished the back and all is well-I made it 2" longer than the Tilted Duster pattern called for (a mod suggested to me by eyeloveit, the original brains behind this cropped cardigan idea). I was mentally patting myself on the back for my cleverness in picking such a cute pattern and such great yarn...

And then fail began. I knitted the right front, adding on 20 stitches and working out the decreases so it looked the same as the Duster by the time I got to armhole shaping (also as suggested by eyeloveit). It turned out WAY too big, so I frogged and reknit, this time adding only 12 extra stitches and coming up with a new decrease pattern. Guess what?



See those two edges next to my hand? Those are supposed to be seamed together. FAIL. Why can't I figure this out?

This week has been one of those weeks when I really need knitting to be a stress reliever. I needed something sweet and fun, just to take the edge off, you know? Just a little something...



Like a cotton cabled baby hat for my new nephew to wear home from the hospital. This kid isn't even born yet and he's already making me happy.

Pattern: 10 cable baby hat by Julie (free pattern)
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton (leftover from my February Baby Sweater)
Needles: Size 7 (16" circs & DPNs)
Modifications: Cast on 64 stitches instead of 80 and made it a 8 cable baby hat. My yarn was fat and I wanted to make sure this would fit a newborn.

Ahhh...relief. Calming and adorable. I felt better, so I got ballsy. I decided the baby needed cabled booties to go with his adorable hat.



Boooooo! The picture actually doesn't even show the atrociousness. The pattern (which is free) is not the flaw, it's my insistence on trying to use the fatty Organic Cotton. They came out all huge and lopsided and stupid.

Lucky for me, I'm leaving tonight for a fun-filled, relaxing vacation in the Smoky Mountains with some of the funnest people ever. I'm going to use my new Smooshy to make a pair of socks for Bryan's birthday- something soothing and easy, like Thuja (converted to sock yarn). He has huge size 12 feet, so I'll have plenty of time to be soothed.