Mild disappointment

I wore my lovely fetchings all day yesterday, and they kept my hands nice and toasty. They did NOT, however, keep their shape. I used Shine Worsted, which is a cotton/modal blend. I should have anticipated this based on what I've read, but I have not been knitting long enough, or enough types of items, that I have had experience with the way various fibers wear. Anyway, they did lose their shape, but Pixie suggested a few days ago that, instead of ripping the original version, I could tighten it up with stretchy nylon filament. I will toddle off to JoAnn's later today and get some of that stuff to thread through a few rows at the fingers and the cuffs, and I suspect that will do the trick. In the meantime, I have some Regia bamboo/wool blend sock yarn that is trying to convince me that its beautiful colors should not be exiled to the dark confines of my shoes...
In Faina news, I picked her up again last night, and realized that I'd made a mistake somewhere in one of the previous rows. I ripped, and ripped again, and ripped some more, and finally, about six rows down, was able to find a good row and find my place again. Negative progress on the Faina. ...sigh... Oh well, it's all about learning the whole chart thing. (That's what messed me up the most - I ripped two rows and went down two rows on the chart, trying to get it to line up. It took me the better part of an hour to remember that the chart only shows HALF the rows. ...sigh...)
Also, is it just me, or, now that you know how to Make Good Stuff with your knitting, do you suddenly feel like you can improve almost every product on the market? I have been thinking about getting a chart keeper, and before I have even seen the thing, I'm think I could cover it in fabric, make it look like a little book, with a sweet little snap closure, and... Gracious, there is not enough time in my working-outside-the-home life to get all Laura Ingalls again.

Walked yesterday: 1 mile

Feeties and FOs

La suggested we should post pictures of feets. Cute feets, preferably. I have risen to the challenge. But first, a FO.

Fetchings:


They're so... what's the word?

Started Sunday, 2/25 and finished Wednesday, 2/28
Bachelor Button Shine Worsted, from Knitpicks, most of two balls bought for this very purpose
Mods: I added two cable repeats at the top, and decreased five of the four-stitch cables to two-stitch cables to tighten up the gap.

Nice pattern, easy to do, and I can't wait to have them for the office.

Click here to see what it looked like when I decided to swap the positions of a four-stitch cable and a two-stitch cable, after the fact.

And now for the feeties.


Pre-bath feeties



During-bath feeties



Post-bath feeties

ETA: there isn't anything wrong with his feet, he just likes to curl his toes


Fluffy toes



Greta toes



Peaches' toes



Toes and nose



Airborne toes

And for La, chubby fingers:


Note the raised pinky

And because I can, his newest favoritest toy ever:



He climbed in there all by himself

Monday bites

HARD.
I am having A Day. It's 9:30, and the day is already screwed beyond redemption, I think. It may end up being just an "eh" day, but for now, I'm ready to write it off and start over on Tuesday.
This weekend ended up being sunny but fairly chilly. I know, I know, it's nothing compared to the monster ice and snow storms happening in the east and midwest, but still. My brain doesn't switch that fast. It takes me a couple of days of long sleeves to realize it's too hot for long sleeves, and it takes me a couple of days of flimsy t-shirts to realize I'm freezing. Anyway, it was a nice day yesterday, and we took the Bug to the park where he played and played and played some more. There were tons of bigger kids there playing, and watching them, I wondered again how we all lived through our childhoods. They were playing on the swings, doing flips and twisting and jumping like I remember doing, and I don't know why I didn't kill myself with my acrobatics. And I DO know why my mother's heart gave out at such a young age. Holy cow.
Anyway, I didn't knit on anything I'd already started, I cast on for a new project. Yes, I jumped on another bandwagon and knit myself a Fetching. I finished it last night (just the one) and it suffers from the problem I thought it would - it gapes at the top, near my fingers. I dunna like that, so I am going to pick out the binding and add either another cable round, some tighter ribbing, some decreases, or all of the above. I would keep going and make it into a fingerless glove instead of a mitt, but I'm making it with Shine Worsted (in a lovely Bachelor Button colorway, like dark periwinkle) and I think two layers of worsted between my fingers would annoy me deeply. I might use a little crocheted chain between the fingers to hold them on, or maybe a finger-loop around the index and little fingers... There are many possibilities with these cuties, so I'll play with them tonight and see what I like best.
I'd started these mitts once already, on DPNs, and hated every second. This time I tried them magic-loop style, and I must say I like that much much better. It's also nice to know that I can knit a tube with magic loop and avoid the dreaded ladders, so top-down socks are within the realm of possibility. I did use the DPNs for the thumb, and that wasn't terrible, so I may consider gloves at some point as well. Perhaps I will buy some smaller bamboo DPNs and cut them down to be short before I do that.