Up in Arms

Not much going on in my outdoor world this week. The weather was all over the map and that kept all the butterflies confused. On good days I could identify 5 or 6 species in the yard at one time, on bad days not a one was to be seen. Today was a cold blustery day reminding us that it really is fall and winter is only around the corner.

But my knitting world was quite busy and productive. I have gotten almost finished with the 1st sleeve of my Tomten. I love the green at the inset in the shoulder. I was not convinced the green would look good with the blue until I got past the inset and now I feel very good about it. I ended up working the sleeve pretty much just like EZ wrote the pattern. At least the version she gives where she incorporates the stitches on the holder as you knit along instead of her first version which had you sewing the short underarm seam and the long sleeve seam. I knitted the sleeve in the round using the magic loop method which was new to me and quite easy to learn. It is going to be a useful tool in my sock knitting later one. I kind of wished that I had done at least a few short rows ala Brooklyn Tweed at the top of the shoulder but I am still happy with my work. I only did decreases until about the elbow but now about 3" above the wrist I think I will throw in a few more decreases to tighten up the fit. I should be able to finish off this sleeve during the week and get the 2nd one started. I am anxious to be able to wear my soft squishy sea of garter stitch as the weather gets chillier.

I also started a pair of argyle socks this week. I found a pattern that was supposed to be a seamless version that involved alot of wraps, floats and turning. I worked my way thru the first few steps and decided that although I understood the process and could preform the steps well enough I just did not like the process. So I ripped it all the way back and will be making them by the old fashioned flat method. In fact I plan on using a very old pattern book that I bought on eBay awhile back. Sometimes it is just better to go with the proven method.

Work will be a bear this week. We are going live with our new filmless PACS system throughout the entire hospital. I am afraid the learning curve will be painful all the way around but it will certainly be alot more work for the techs. Especially in MRI where I work where we will have a ton more stuff to do on each case we do during the day. I will really feel the pain when I am working by myself in the evening. I already don't have enough time to get it all done in the one hour they allow me to do a exam and now I have another 10 minutes or so of work to cram in. Oh well...Just one week and I am on vacation.. To Houston for the quilt show!!!!! I am also going to try to go down to Galveston if the weather cooperates. So hopefully I will get some great photos of the beach and maybe of some great historical houses. And I have the addresses of several great sounding yarn shops to find when I am tired of quilt shopping. So until next week...keep those needles clicking