Not Much Knitting...........

I had a baby's first birthday to go to on Saturday, so I really did not much knitting this past weekend. But Sunday felt like a lazy day, so I watched movies and knit.

Progress on the Hanging Garden isn't much. But I now have 3 1/2 repeats done, and I still love it. Once I re-knit after tinking back the 15 rows, I tried to insert a lifeline. I got the lifeline inserted on the purl row, but once I tried knitting the next lace row, it had to come out. There was no way in Heaven or Hell I could knit those decreases and double decreases without tangling the lifeline into the knitting. So it served no purpose at all. I pulled the sucker right back out. And it doesn't upset me not having one; I just keep counting the repeat stitches on every purl row, and I'm fine.

But for some reason, I didn't feel like knitting HG much this weekend. Sometimes I need to take a break from my regular knitting. So instead I picked up an alternate knit, the Pingouin garter stitch baby sweater. Here's what the sweater looks like in the book:

It's a simple knit because it's all garter stich, so I'm practicing my continental style knitting with it; the simple truth is I can't catch on how to purl continental. But I need to practice if I ever want to knit a fairisle. I find my guage is very tight knitting continental. That could cause a problem with fairisle, since I'd have to use both Continental and English styles.

Well, I did say this is for practice. The hope is to get my guage to loosen up a little if I do more of it. I have the back of the sweater finished, and have cast on for one front:

This is the same pale aqua Wendy Peter Pan yarn I used for the waffle pattern sweater a few months back. Once I have all the pieces knit, I'll have to find a nice contrasting color for the finishing (see above). There's no hurry for it, since it's one of my just-in-case baby sweaters. It's great to have them hanging around so that when a new baby is on the way I don't feel pressured.

Reading

I'm getting near the end of The Naming. It was written in the Tolkien tradition, so a lot of the elements are familiar. I really enjoy it, and look forward to the second book. Ever since the Lord of The Rings, I've been so into fantasy I can't believe it. In fact, those are the movies I was re-watching yesterday.

I've always been a reader, but only lately have I come into the fantasy phase. And it's not a bad thing. I've always felt that it wasn't that important what you read, as long as you read.