There Has Been Knitting

I love my iPod. I love the fact that I can download audio books from the library and listen while I’m knitting; right now, I’m listening to, and enjoying, “the Book of Spies” by Gayle Lynds. Listening and knitting means I make good progress on my projects.

Like this one…

…the Western Seas pullover. One sleeve is now finished and the second sleeve is on the needles. It could… possibly… be finished this weekend. I’m not pushing it, though. There’s no rush to get it done and I’m enjoying the process.

This week, as I had hoped, the yarn for the little girls’ sweaters came in.

Both are Knit Picks Comfy fingering, 75% pima cotton and 25% acrylic (the tealy-blue yarn is really difficult to photograph!). Wow, is this yarn ever nice! Comfy is a good name for it; it’s nice and soft and cushy. I have a feeling these little cardis will be go-to sweaters. I think I posted a link to the pattern, but in case you missed it, it’s a Drops pattern. Here’s a picture…

The entire sweater is worked in garter stitch, but I’m doing it in stocking stitch; I much prefer the look of stocking stitch over garter stitch. The only thing that concerns me (other than the fact it might curl at the lower edges) is the crochet edging all around the body of the sweater, as well as the sleeves. Crochet has become a method of torture (my thumb doesn’t like it at all), but I think if I take it slowly, I should be ok. It’s just a simple picot edging, after all.

I wasn’t going to cast on for this until the Western Seas sweater was finished, but it is definitely not TV knitting at this point (working patterning and decreases at the same time) while the little cardis start out with 18 cm of straight knitting, much more amenable to watching CSI.

Speaking of iPods, this week I splurged and bought myself an iTunes App Store gift card just so that I could download a couple of apps that I’ve had my eye on for a while.

The first one I bought was Knit Counter. I’d had the free version for a while, but you can only input one project and we all know that I NEVER have just one project on the go. If you’re a knitter and you have an iPod, I can definitely recommend this app. You can input all your increases, decreases, stitch patterns, link counters… pretty impressive.

The second one I bought was the iKnit Needle Sizer, a very clever little application and quite handy because most knitters don’t always carry a needle gauge.

To find your needle size, you lay the needle over the white lines. If you can see the red lines on either side of your needle, but no white, you’ve found your size. (I know, it’s a little difficult to see the red in the photos, but you get the idea.) Very clever!

I bought a few other apps, too, but these two were the only knitting-related apps. What about you? Do you have any favourite apps, knitting or other? Anything you can recommend?