Miss Dashwood is coming along nicely - I spent a couple days ‘in fear’ of the bobble border and decided to wait until I could dedicate a good chunk of time working through those two rows (rows 3 & 4 - the ones that actually make the bobbles). Today was that day. I don’t remember if I’ve ranted about the needles I’m using - they’re an eBay win. The package they were in says they were made by Boye. Dang, the tips on them are pointy! (I’m quite used to my Susan Bates that are stuck in the HP scarf - they have a nicely tapered blunt tip that doesn’t hurt nearly as much while fighting with stitches).

So as mentioned, I started the border section a couple days ago. I tried using the tip to use a crochet hook to work the K4tbl as mentioned on the Knittyboard - not sure if I worked the stitches in the right direction, but it did work out quite nicely!

So today I finally decided to tackle my bobble rows. Boy was that a pain. The 29″ needle isn’t quite the right length once you get all those decreases in, so it was a little awkward working the stitches around. I made a small mistake somewhere in the previous rows so that one of the little sections was short a stitch - the bobble rows were easy enough to figure the ‘pattern’ out that I could fake the mistake and have it turn out with the bobbles in the right place, so I feel kind of smart for figuring that out and having it turn out successfully on all 4 rows without having actually marked the spot. (I was not in the mood to frog the k4tbl row and redo it all). So yeah, the bobbles worked themselves out, but man is it a PITA trying to purl 4 together! The first stitch liked to jump off the needle while trying to get the 4th stitch on, then I’d lose the ‘working yarn’ trying to pull it thru all four loops. AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I knew there was a reason I didn’t want to knit bobbles into things. (Although they will look quite cute in this hat, I’m sure.) Aside from the pain it is to knit them (frustration, and jabbed fingertips with these particular needles), I’m not really a fan of them. I suppose they have their place, but I will be happy to not knit them into anything else for awhile (unless I make another one of these hats…)

so, the bobbles are done, and they turned out ok. some are a bit larger or better defined than others, but I’m ok with that. it matches the unevenness of the picot edge (which has the same size/definition issues). I knit one round of the stockinette (thank you Knittyboard members for the reminder to not skip these 2″ section), and think I have an extra stitch. that or I can’t count. oh, well - we’ll just decrease it later. I think I’m going to be switching to dpns when I start up again (tomorrow, after my fingertips recover) and see if it ‘flows’ better than it is currently. Hopefully there’s not too many stitches for it to fit on them properly and not fall off…

After much anticipation, I’m a little disappointed. I think a lot of the patterns look great, but I don’t really see myself knitting them.

What do I like?
* cambio, asana, ribbon Xback, soleil & spring fling - but I’m unsure if they’d still look good once on me
* braching out & i do - the lace is pretty and I want to try something lacey. I’ve joined the KAL for branching out - I have the yarn but still need to cast on.
* cecelia - too cute! but not sure if my neices will still fit it by the time I’d ever get around to it.
* cocktail monkey - it’s too cute, but I’m not much of a bag person so probably won’t get to it.
* wheelie - I’ve been contemplating a steering wheel cover - interesting to see a variation from the basic garter stitch I’d been planning
* petals - ya gotta have knit flowers, right?!

non-knitting rant ahead…
so shortly after we moved here, we subscribed to the local paper - the Star Tribune. They have a nice ‘intro’ deal, but than after you’ve been ‘intro’ed’ to the convenience of it being on your doorstep, the subscription price is more than the cover price. Why would I want to pay more to have the paper magically show up on my front step every week, when I can get some exersize and walk up to the corner gas station or whatever and grab it for regular price?! (or just hit a store on my way home from dance class and grab it - which is the more likely scenario - especially when the weather is crappy) So eventually we cancelled. Well, now they’ve been calling me/us a lot (one of their numbers showed up in my phone at least 7 times over the course of a week - I have a habit of not answering the phone if I don’t know who it is). Finally answered the phone and was told they were doing a promotion in my area - 2 weeks free and then we’d be billed. “We don’t want it” but we’re doing it for everyone in your area. Fine whatever. Tell dh. He calls them up and tells them “We don’t want it” but didn’t get very far with them either - eventually he told them that if it shows up on our doorstep, we’re not paying for it. So, the promo thing starts - oddly enough, none of our neighbors have a newspaper - just us. *sigh*

so last week was week 2 and we got the bill with the last paper. dh calls them up to cancel it, explains the story. He’s told that it was part of a promo thru the cable company (ComCast) - a) we don’t have cable TV (just cable internet). b) we’re not even in ComCast’s area (TimeWarner baby - woo. not really thrilled with them, but what choice do you get when it comes to cable…). so he explains to the poor Customer Service person that if we’re subscribing, we shouldn’t be paying more - it’s a guaranteed sale. he manages to get a deal so that we’re paying the cover rate - nothing more, nothing less. we’re happy. a couple hours later, my phone rings… it’s the blasted newspaper calling to make sure we’re getting the paper and to talk about payment arrangements! *bangs head on wall* of course, every time I answer the phone, I get “Mrs. dh’s-last-name” - um, no. I kept my last name, thank you very much. why do they assume that?! so the guy asks/tells me three different things - each answer is along the lines of ‘my husband just talked to CS - it’s taken care of’.

so, why am I ranting (aside from the fact that it’s all kind of annoying) - they called AGAIN TODAY!!!!!! this time it was George. “Mrs. dh” ‘Miss my-last-name’ oh. well, blah blah blah, we see you’ve got this rate and I can give you this better rate. um, no. dh is taking care of that, and a) he’s not at this number and b) he’s at work right now. oh, we’ll call back later. ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!! no! stop calling! leave me alone! don’t change the bloody rate! why is this newspaper so stupid!??!?!?!?! apparently their departments are not informed very well of what’s going on in the other areas. heck, they don’t seem to even know what’s going on within their own department. I’m tempted to just switch over to the Pioneer Press… it may be smaller, but at least they haven’t shown us this level of stupidity yet…

I finally finished the cast-on for Miss Dashwood. and I made it thru the first two rows of ribbing and into the stockinette. my fingers hurt though - I’m not sure if it’s cuz I knit so tight or if it has something to do with the size 6 needles. I am quite happy that it fit around the 29″ circ I have almost perfectly - it felt like I had to stretch it a bit to join the cast-on, but now that I’m knitting it it seems to fit just fine. I’m wondering how long I can keep it on there before I have to switch to the dpns, since I’m not really in the mood to hunt down a shorter circ for it.

Stumbled on a couple great posts while blog-surfing…
How to Felt with Acrylic.
Roll Over Dante - I’m in the 2nd circle presently - like Jaclyn, I think I have a bit of Knitting ADD.