Ribbit, Ribbit ...

... that's what a frog says, right?  Well, in the knitting world, frogs say "rip it, rip it." And that's the reason knitters use the term "frogging" as they merrily unravel their hours worth of knitting. Okay, it's not always a particularly fun thing to do but we've all done it at some time. 

I recently posted on my Facebook a status report that said:  "What to do ... what to do ... the yarn in real life does NOT look as nice as the picture on the pattern. Do I abandon the project to choose new yarn?"  And resounding comments were "new yarn".

This is what I'm making:

I thought the colours were fairly striking, so off I went to buy the EXACT yarn the pattern called for.  Let's just say the picture in the pattern did not have true tones because in real life, this is what it looked like:

A bit garish for my taste.  So on the advice of  ... uh, EVERYONE, I "frogged" all of my work, returned the unused balls of yarn and picked out some new colours.  This is what I chose:

Colourful, yet more subtle and easy on the eyes!  It's knitting fairly fast even though it's on smaller needles.  I've already finished the back and the left front.  It's amazing how much knitting one can get done when glued to the TV every night watching Olympics events!

You tell me:  did I make the right decision?

New things and ideas

I've started a new project and I've learned a new variation on ribbing.  This pattern called for a modified ribbing  of:  Row 1-Knit across; Row 2-K1, P1 across. I think it looks nice, but even nicer is the way it feels.  It has nice body and stretch without pinching in as much as a regular ribbing.  (The modified ribbing is the red stiped part):

I have also discovered the perfect project caddy for knitting at home!   I was looking around at Michael's to find a new knitting bag and by pure chance had a look at scrapbooking caddies.  They looked great and seemed to have what I was looking for and I was right!  This is the one I bought:

There are lots of side pockets for my knitting accessories (row counter, stitch markers, tape measure, etc...).  The center pouch runs the full length of the bag and nicely stores the work in progress (or, in my case, my AddieTurbo Click System.)  There are lots of different scrapbooking caddies -- some larger, some smaller -- I chose a medium size.  This one is about 13" long , 10" wide and 8" high ... a nice compact size to keep my project organized.

The last "new" thing for me in the past few weeks was acquiring and then putting to use a yarn winder.  With the help of the owner at my favorite local yarn shop (http://www.makeoneyarns.com/) I finally got the wool I dyed last fall wound into a usable centre-pull ball.  Now I just have to decide what I'll make with it.  This wool is sport weight.

So that's my "new" discoveries.  This new sweater project will probably take a while, but it's really interesting so I won't mind.  Keep those needles clacking!