Done and Done

So I've been very bad about blogging for the past month - in case you noticed! I've been busy being engrossed with things like this:

FIFA 2010 World Cup

and things like this:

and spending too little time doing this:

(please note that this picture is not a good likeness of me while knitting - my posture is not that good...)

Why, you my ask, am I not knitting more??? I can't help it; I find that there are so many things vying for my attention in the summer, even when it is 95 degrees F with a heat index of 105+ (for any non-Americans, that's almost 41 degrees C) . I can't ride my bike during the winter, and we've had so much rain this spring that when we've had a gorgeous weekend, I want to go riding. Throw in the need to do yard work, especially due to said cursed rain, and there isn't enough time for everything in the summer.

Thankfully I have two things saving my knitting: the baby shower deadline for the baby cardi, and the Rowan Summer Tweed yarn I rediscovered in my stash (color is Powder). First, let me share with you that I finished the baby cardigan, and my DH even picked out the perfect froggie buttons (they are so cute!):

After finishing up the pieces, weaving in all the ends, blocking and picking up to knit the collar and button band/buttonhole band, it seamed up pretty quickly. After we got our power back at the house, that is (AGAIN with the rain - stupid thunderstorm). This was my first experience with button holes, and naturally I finished them before running out and picking up the latest Interweave Knits magazine with...an article about how to knit better button holes.

Once the baby cardi was done, picking up that unfinished Dragon Scarf with the itchy Shetland wool seemed as appealing as cleaning cat puke off the basement floor. That's just not going to happen in these temps. So I rummaged through the stash until I found the eight hanks of Summer Tweed yarn and latched onto it. I originally bought this yarn several years ago for an off the shoulder baggy sweater, which for some crazy reason caught my interest. After ditching that idea, I went searching through my knitting books, magazines and favorite online pattern places to find something. Either I didn't like what I found (no, I'm not picky) or I didn't have enough yarn. I finally decided to try substituting this yarn for the specified yarn in the Vogue Knitting Summer 2009 magazine, called Star Snowflake Sweater. Hey, my yarn is called Powder, the pattern is called Snowflake...it's fate, right? Here's a picture of the pattern, yarn and my progress to date:

Let's hope my yarn conversions are up to snuff or this might end up being one big lacy swatch!