Wine, cheese, and knitting!

So I was able to get most of the second fingerless glove done during the Saints game (Black and Gold to the Superbowl!!!!), and finished it up over the next day or two. I made the right one first, which seemed a little lumpy/misshapen, and the cable was off center. Once I finished the left glove, I saw what looked much more like the photo that accompanied the pattern, which was, of course, just of the left glove. Now, I'm no expert knitter, but I did find errors in the pattern, and I'm guessing there was a major error in the pattern regarding where to place the thumb (there was a whole bar of ribbing between the cable and the thumb). I guess there just happened to be differences in the sections of the hank of yarn for the two gloves, because I know there are the same number of stitches and all, and they are almost two different sizes. Also, as you can see from the photo, this colorway doesn't work too well for this particular pattern. This pattern also specifically calls for Trabajos del Peru fine Merino which is what I used. It's even on Plymouth Yarn's (the Trabajos company's) website! Well, I plan on making many more gloves/mittens, but I'll be using different patters/creating my own in the future. Soon, I need to really choose/design a pattern for a scarf for this yarn. The man's mama chose it (and bought it!) so I could make her a scarf, so I feel a little guilty as it is.

OK, moving on.... I had a wonderful knitting experience last night: I held a wine, cheese, and knitting party! It was so nice to have a girls' night (even if I was the only non-med student of the bunch), and eat yummy food and drink good (OK, cheap, but still yummy) wine. At first I wasn't sure if we'd get to the knitting part, but we did, and it was great. Two friends were picking up knitting again after many years, which was fun to see. Another of my friends was starting a hat for her fiance, and I shared a pattern I'd used for two hats recently. I remember being in her dorm room freshmen year admiring hats she had made right after I had started knitting. I thought it would be so hard to learn to knit in the round and decrease so neatly like she had done, but she was right- it became easy! Six years later, here we are sharing patterns with each other like old times- I love it! She and I also decided that we should both jump in and each make our first sweater. The plan is to try a baby or toddler sweater first to get the skills and not spend too much money on the yarn and not have to be too worried about the fit. Let's do it!

One last thing for this post. I really enjoy the forty minutes I get to spend at home for my lunch hour (the other twenty are spent walking from/back to work). I'm lucky to live so close to work, and I'm lucky to live in a part of the country that lately has had gorgeous, sunny, warm afternoons. I've been sitting on my back porch reading my novel about knitters, while my dog Ruby lounges, basking in the sun. It's a beautiful thing.