Crochet and soap

There is something so fantastically retro about the look of all those little crochet stitches appearing on my afghan.  I love the word afghan.  I love this whole blanket, really, but I'm angsty over the introduction of a stripe of bright yellow in an otherwise muted palette - I wonder if we're progressing from 'scrap blanket' to 'garish striped blanket' rather faster than I had anticipated.  Also, if you have enough of a scrap of yarn to do multiple stripes, then as everyone knows you can't 'pool' all of that colour at one end, so you STILL have little balls of scrap yarn hanging about your life as you wait to progress to a decent distance away from the first stripe, and this means the acquisition of more yarn which initially makes you seem to be moving backwards in your progress.  The only way out is through, and whatever you do, don't stop!

I'm off in a few minutes to a friend's house; she's going to teach me how to overcome my fear of lye and make soap.  I will not be blinded and burned, I'm assuring myself, since she has done this many times and makes all of her own soaps.  Deep breath.

Dishcloths

I just had to share this picture; I haven't had a chance to do very much in the way of knitting the past few weeks months but as soon as we arrived here I made these for the new kitchen.

I know they're a bit spring coloured for this cool weather we're having now, but I'm loving new dishcloths all the same.  I made them smaller and tighter this time than I usually do and they're working so much better.

Knitting.

Recovering from the horror of Clara's badly messed up raglan sleeve incident.  It occured to me in a fit of momguilt that Samuel hasn't had anything newish from my for a long while.  Clara keeps getting all the sweaters and sweetness because I'm loving having a little girl.  And also I'm in a better knitting place with baby #2 than I was with baby #1.  But he really is taken with a skein of yarn I picked up at the thrift store, and so I've started him a sweater while I wait to calm down and consult with knitting betters tomorrow over the raglan thing.

I'm knitting this.  Except heavily modified to handle my desire to get it done quickly.

And here it is.

knitting.

Here is a picture of Clara's sweater so far.  Until just now, when I finished the 24 rows of raglan decreases (those lines on your shirt that go from the armpit to the collar and separate your sleeve?  Those are the raglans.).  Can you see it?  Here:

This is the right sleeve and the right front of the sweater.  See how the raglans are going?  See how much space there is on the sweater front?  I even illustrated it with my fingers here.

On the other hand, here's the left of the sweater.  See how wonky the raglans are?  See the miniscule amount of space left at the sweater front?  SEE?

Okay, deep breath.  After discovering this, freaking out, calling a knitting friend, freaking out again, and taking pictures for you all to see and equally freak out on my behalf, I have sealed the knitting up in a bag and put it away for the night.  Freaking out over knitting is not going to fix this sweater.