Being an old car it's been difficult finding parts and someone to fix it. Not to mention fighting with the insurance company to keep them from totaling it. It may not be a looker, but it runs well and gets me back and forth to work, which is really all that maters to me. I'm not the type of person who needs to have the newest car. I just want reliable transportation. Anyway, in the end we do think we've found someone to fix it for the amount of money we got from the insurance so hopefully that will all work out. I finished the Raven mittens. They are really quite horrible.
(Anyone looking at that picture would think I didn't know a thing about knitting.) I used the mitten pattern from the Fall 07 Knit Simple magazine. The pattern was hard to follow and produced a rather ugly mitten. The decreases all lean the wrong way, the shaping is weird at the thumb. I figured most of the problems out by the time I got to the 2nd mitten, but I won't be using this pattern again. The yarn, however, is fabulous. And I have a ton left over. So these will be snow shoveling mittens and I'll knit another pair with a better pattern for regular wear. Milan is also finished. The collar did little to improve the final fit of the sweater though.
I love the sweater when it's layed out flat, but put it on and it's a rag. The collar will not lay right no matter how much pulling and fussing and steaming and blocking I do. The collar is knit straight out from the neckline. But I think it needs some increases in there to give it fullness over the shoulders. I've got plenty of yarn left and am thinking of ripping the whole collar and reknitting it with increases to see if that helps. I also don't like the offset front. I primped and adjusted to get that sweater to hang right for the photo. As soon as I move, it gaps open over my bust and looks horrible. I think I am also going to sew the right flap to the left front, essentially changing the cardigan to a pullover. Perhaps the structure of a seam will help to keep the front supported so the neckline doesn't pull out of shape. As frustrating as it is having spent months knitting the sweater only to have it not fit, it is still a great thing about knitting that I do have options, even now, to recover it and make it usable.I've cast on two new projects this week. Last week I received these lovelies from my friend Jen.
Two balls of Lion Brand Sock Ease and 3 skeins of her own hand dyed merino silk in a color called Vintage. The merino silk is for a baby surprise jacket, which I just didn't feel up to working on at the moment. Instead I cast on the brown Sock Ease to make plain vanilla socks. This is mostly so I have easy knitting for while I'm riding the exercise bike. 
So far I'm liking the yarn. I don't really notice any difference at all from the aloe that's in it. It feels and knits up like standard sock yarn. But I really like the way the colors are coming out. I like the way it's striping. The bits of color are nice and random, very similar to hand dyed. I also started casting on last night for Fylingdales. Yes, notice the correct spelling. All this time I've been calling it Flyingdales. Ooops. As always when starting a new project, I'm super excited to see how it's going to knit up. Pictures when I get something to show for it.
In perfume news, The Midsummer Muse is closing down her Etsy shop this weekend and reopening the old Violette Market. I made sure I ordered a bottle of Guinevere before she shutdown, although I do believe she will have all her standard scents at the new site plus some of the scents from the old VM. VM was before I got into perfume so I am unfamiliar with their line. But if it's anywhere near as good as MM, it will be great. The site is supposed to go live today and I've been stalking it since this morning. There's been some changes, but still no ordering links yet. Be sure to go check it out.
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