Half Full or Half Empty?

Problem solved, but frogging is in my near future. I decided to knit the puppy sweater (middle of top row). Of course, I can't ever do it just like the pattern. I'm changing the colors to a red background and the puppy and stripes to black and white. I also am knitting it in the round. At least I hope to be able to knit it like a seamless yoke sweater.

So, I started out with the sleeves by the magic loop method (one long circular). I'm using the seamless yoke directions in The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns by Ann Budd. The directions say to use dpns and place a marker for the beginning of the round. Then to increase 1 stitch each side of the marker every 6 rounds. Well, with magic loop, I'm at the beginning of my round when I get back to "home position". So my increases are in the first and last stitch.

The sleeve on the left frustrated me. I tried several different types of increases, but I was left with a protruding bump every time I increased. I resolved to go forward and hope that washing and blocking would help. Then it dawned on me that it would not harm anything to move my increases in a stitch. The picture does not show great detail, but the sleeve on the right has a much smoother line for the increases. I ended up doing a make 1 after the first stitch and before the last stitch.

So, my glass is half empty because I have to frog the left sleeve. It just bugs me too much. But on the other hand, it is half full because I learned something that will make me a better knitter.

Grandma's Flowers

These are my Grandma's flowers. I did not get her green thumb. She sent me off to college with an air fern and an aloe plant. Grandma said that I could not kill them. She was wrong. One year I wanted to grow green beans and can them like she did. I suspect that when I was away at work, that Grandma came over and took care of my bean plants. These plants have been blooming in her yard every year all of my life.














Edited to add: I was out talking to my mother this afternoon. She said that she has identified 5 different varieties of these flowers in the yard. She also told me that my Daddy remembers hunting Easter eggs in these flowers -- so they have been here a really long time.