Back to Ribbing

After all the ribbing I knit for my Red Rover shrug, you wouldn't think I would be so pleased to be ribbing again.
But I am.  The lower part of the back is done and I am an inch into the ribbing that goes around the entire waist.  My goal is to finish the ribbing today, and then the back in a couple days.
And it isn't even New Year's yet!

Fresh Starts

You know, it was my idea to make 2013 the Year of Sweaters.  And I can set the rules any way I like.
So...while I do have some projects I can pick up and work on for a couple days, who is going to stop me if I want to start my first sweater a couple of days early.  As I often say, there are no knitting police.
So I am swatching again tonight, while watching Irene Dunne in "Love Affair," but tomorrow I cast on.
Sweater number one: the Green Romney Rib Waist Cardigan begins.

Don't Mess With the Words.

I've been pondering, since Christmas Eve.   At our church we have a service of carols before the regular Christmas service.  A half hour of caroling.  I loved it.  Even if I did almost lose my voice before the regular service. 

But I have to say.....I really hate it when the hymnal tries to muck around with the verses and make them politically correct. 
It is not "Good Christian Folk rejoice", it is "Good Christian Men rejoice".  And God rest ye, merry Gentlemen. 
From my time playing guitar and singing I memorized all the real words.  And I get off track when the words are all messed up and made politically correct. 
The Book of Common Prayer does the same thing with the Lord's Prayer.  There is the "real" version and the modern one and we are supposed to alternate each week or so. 
I have to confess, on the week for the modern one, I mumble the real one.  Same with the songs.  I sing the real traditional words, at half volumne.
Don't mess around with traditional lyrics and prayers.
There, I've had my say.

Christmas Mittens

After a quiet Christmas dinner at home with most of the family I finished my lined Black Boku Mittens.  (Oldest Son always works the holidays.  The cattle must be cared for.) The mittens should have been done long ago, but I was finishing reading The Lord of the Rings.  I had started reading it many times, but this time was able to finish, thanks to my Nook. 
I find I read more, as well as more classics, when reading on my Nook. 
And now that mittens and book are done, I am reading something lighter, and preparing for my Year of Sweaters.
I washed and dried the green Romney handspun.  And the skeins are all wound and waiting. 
I think I will take the little leftover skein and start to swatch.  And work on a few WIPS too.

Preparations

I have picked out the first sweater pattern for 2013. It is Rib Waist Cardigan, by Rita Moreno and it is in the book Curvy Knits 2.  (edited--designer is JILLIAN Moreno, not Rita.  :-b.) I have been admiring the pattern for some time.
So with the pattern in hand, I surveyed the stash. And the winner is green handspun Romney. Home-grown and dyed by my friend Sue Ann (AKA the Sassy Red Ewe) and spun by me.
So today, the wool took a dip and after soaking, was hung to dry in the drying rack in the tub.  I haven't dried this much yarn at one time before.  But it should done in plenty to time to wind before New Year's Eve.
And maybe even swatch!