Speed Sweater!
Wow, I wish I could finish a sweater-a-week all the time! That's what's cool about knitting for kids -- miniature size, fast satisfaction for the knitter. Making its AmyKnits! debut, in all its pink splendor, is the Pink Fiesta Upside-Downer!

Whoa! That's a lotta pink!


I tried to get a closeup shot of the yarn, to show the nifty pastel tweed texture:



And the coolest part? An entire sweater for under $10. PFUD and the Aran Poncho will be heading up to Portland sometime this week, as a surprise for my sister and niece. I love stealth gifting!

The only thing I'd do differently the next time on this sweater is add some short rows to the back of the neck area, ala Elizabeth Zimmerman's Percentage Raglan. I don't think it'll make a lot of difference on a child's sweater, but I can imagine the adult version fitting too closely around the neck front and bothering the wearer.

Hit a Bit of a Snag ...
... when I started Ridgeway Lite for my brother. The yarn I'd intended to use, a discontinued shade of WoolEase called Tartan Twist, ended up being much too dark to show the pattern's texture. The texture is a twisted stockinette stitch that's pretty subtle. The Tartan Twist shade is a very dark navy blue, with a twist of dark purple and forest green running through it. Good for another plain sweater like the Upside Downer Raglan where the yarn is the star. Back into the stash it goes, and online I go, cruising for a medium shade of worsted.

"I found myself driving past convenience stores,
even when they weren't on the way home."
--H.I. McDonnough, Raising Arizona

You can tell you've been on a diet for awhile when you start looking for excuses to just gaze at food. I've started watching Food Network. At first, I just watched the diet-related shows, ostensibly to get ready for the transition to the maintenance phase of my diet. Then I started watching Emeril. Oh, the slippery slope!

The good news is that I've lost a total of 23 lbs. I'm a little over one-third of the way to my goal, and am starting to feel like my old (slender) self again. So I gotta put the kibosh on this Food Network stuff, pronto.

Happy Monday, everyone.