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No photos today, or really anything new. One thing that was interesting, that I didn't mention about Michelle's costume. It has to do with my increasing abilities with knitting!

In doing the collar for the top, I used dpns for the first time! I was amazed at how well it went. It felt a little bit awkward the first round, but after that was fine. I can really see getting into that!

I have read a number of knitting books, some of them recommended by Jo! Thanks to them, I have become braver in things I will try, and have learned a lot. I am quite good at tinking, and almost always do Anne's tinking for her. She has a hard time seeing well enough to even begin to take care of that herself. I have even learned how to go back and correct a mistake (sometimes!) without having to rip it all out!

My biggest or at least most tedious repair job was when I was working on Anne's blankey. I found an error many many rows back. It was something that she definitely wanted fixed, even if I didn't! Even if no one else ever noticed, we would. It would have taken forever to tink, but I had read about life lines, and had also read enough and retained enough to have an idea of what loops to pick up. So, what I actually did was take a smaller size circular needle, and threaded it through the stitches a row below the mistake. The worst part of it all was the basketweave pattern in the blanket. It was easy to see which loop to pick up on the stockinette, but harder with the purl side. I did manage to pick up each stitch, although some of the ones from the purl sides were backwards. Easy enough to correct that though. Once the circular was in place, I madly ripped back, and saved an immense amount of time.

I almost forgot, I have used circular needles for knitting in the round now too---although right now, I can't for the life of me remember what I was knitting? Anne had read about the little loop thing you need to do when your circulars are longer than the thing being knitted, which works amazingly well. Okay, I had to ask Anne and she figured it out!!!! The pants for Michelle's costume started out with circulars, knit in the round. I totally forgot! The pattern called for using circulars till the point where the pants are split for the legs. I can't believe I forgot. Oh my, too much going on, and I was in such a rush to get it all done at the time too. Anyway, that was my first time using circulars for something other than straight knitting (when regular needles weren't long enough!)

So, thank you, Jo, for kindly suggesting some really good knitting books! I have really learned a lot!!!!!