Pretty Thing

I finished my sweater project this past weekend.  It's heading to be blocked now, so I'll have to show you a pic later.  However, I did have one problem with the sweater.  The sleeves.  Too short.  I'm not sure if the designer has short arms or if mine are abnormally long, but they're about an inch too short.  What's funny, is that each sleeve was an inch longer than the pattern specs called for before being set in.  I can assure you that there are not two inches bunched up in the seams.  I have no clue what happened.  I'm going to block it first and then see if I need to pick up stitches on the cuff and add more length.  We'll see what happens.

After finishing the sweater, I picked up a small lace project:

This is the Yarn Harlot's Pretty Thing Cowl, or at least what I've gotten done so far.

For full disclosure, let me state that this is the third cast on of the cowl and it is not the yarn that I originally began it with.

1.  First Cast On:  The first time I cast on for this project, I royally screwed up.  I read the charts like the project was flat and to be turned.  Big Note To Self:  When working with a lace chart in the round, always read the chart from right to left exclusively.  There.  Maybe I won't forget next time.  So I frogged what I had created.

2.  Second Cast On:  The first yarn was some gorgeous silk that I spun into laceweight singles.  However, the yarn wasn't quite bulky enough and just didn't look right.    I could have gone down a needle size (I'm using a US4) and continued to use the silk, but I decided that the silk would be put away and used in a future project.

3. Third Cast On:  This time, my reading of the chart was dead on, my counting of all stitches was correct and the yarn is working up beautifully.  Whew!

The yarn is some recycled yarn from an old sweater of mine that a moth got hold of.  There were only two small holes, but the sweater was out of style anyway so I frogged it.  The yarn is a lovely dove gray and is so incredibly soft.  Let me read you what's in it:  30% cotton, 22% nylon, 20% rayon, 13% lambswool, 10% angora rabbit and 5% cashmere.  What a mix!