Happy Leap day!

To celebrate, I have completed all three main panels of Burridge.

Huzzah! There was much rejoicing.

Now -- seaming and the top and bottom panels.

Seamly seams

Oh, Burridge. After an enormous exertion of willpower, I plowed through the two side panels in just a couple of weeks. Well, actually, I still have three pattern repeats on the last panel, but it'll be done by the end of the week.

With that said.

Today's will be an educational post. Obviously, with three panels to put together, seaming must be done. Obvious seaming. Seaming I can't hide under the arm or on the inside or on the bottom. So it had to be nice seaming.

And I think I finally found a good way:



Can you find the seam in the above picture? No? Good. You're not supposed to.

I'm sure the method for making such a seam is totally common knowledge to everyone, but it was news to me, so I figured I'd post it.

First, you put the needle through the panel with the stockinette edge. To do that, you go through the middle of an edge knit stitch top to bottom, like so:



Then you put the needle through an edge purl "bump" on the other panel, top to bottom, like so:



Return the needle back to the first panel, going through the next knit stitch, top to bottom as above. Voila -- tidy speech.

Come to think of it, I should have waited with this post until I had more brainpower left to phrase things better, but no such luck. I hope the pictures prove their 1000 words worth.

Also, in biggish personal news, after 5 years in Chicago, we're moving to Cleveland. Well, Husband is moving back to Cleveland, and I'm moving there for the first time. We'll only be there a year or two, but it's nice to be sorta going home. Although I will be sad to leave my Chicago.

Huzzah for organization!

I finally got tired of keeping all my knitting supplies in a plastic pencil box. It's fine for notions, but I also keep all my DPNs in there, all mixed together, and it takes several minutes to find all the needles I need.



So I decided to make my annual sewing project a needle roll. I've seen alot of them on other knitting blogs, and have wanted one for a while. I've seen some tutorials, but didn't really follow any; it really wasn't hard to figure out.



I used some vintage Russian fabric for the outside and some much tamer green cotton for the lining. The vintage fabric is much too bright for anything else, really, but I think it makes a pretty needle roll!



It's very long -- over two feet -- but it fits all my DPNs, alot of my crochet hooks, my stitch holders and cable needles (I haven't used a cable needle in over a year), my gauge/needle size checker, and my tape measurer (which is why it's not round, but squished-looking). Everything tucks in, and the top folds down, and the thing rolls up and ties in a pretty red ribbon -- voila! Organization!

You make my day!

I was very pleased and surprised to get the You Make My Day award from Misa! In case you don't know Misa, you should! She's a new blogger, but she's terrific. She has wonderful taste, her knits are beautiful, and her photography is great. You make my day, too, Misa!



So I guess now I have to tag 10 people, too. How can I choose only 10? I guess I'll have to try...

-Twig always makes my day with her humor and puppy pics

-Bonnie makes my day with her beautiful lace

-Sarah's art in everything she does makes my day

-The Golden Iris makes my day with a wide variety of crafts!

-Modest Purls makes my day with adorable pictures of her kids and her cute teddy bears!

-The Life in Cleveland blog makes my day with her adventures as well as her knitting

-The Stitchingnut makes my day with her felted art

-Cara's knitting makes my day

-Lynn makes my day with her stunning pictures of all her crafts and her beautiful family

-Anny designs adorable kid clothes, which makes my day!

I had to pick 10, and it was very hard, because if I regularly read and comment on your blog, you make my day!

Monochrome

Nono, don't click away from this site! You're on the right blog!

(Provided, of course, that you're looking for Dove Knits. If you're looking for stamp collecting blogs, this is, indeed, the wrong blog.)

I know what you're thinking -- Dove doesn't DO monochrome. In fact, I don't generally do any color that isn't loud vibrant. And here I am with black? What gives?

Well, it turns out that my dad's feet get cold at home, so I was asked to knit a pair of warm house socks for him.

Now, my dad, unlike my husband, is very, erm, traditional in his color choices. He goes for black, navy, gray, dark brown, and beige, mostly. Sometimes a deep burgundy, if he's feeling adventurous.

So basically, nothing from my stash was going to work, and the rule of not buying any more yarn had to be broken. Off to Joann's I went to get some Classic Merino -- and black just made the most sense. The remnants of my gift certificate and the sale on Classic Merino made these socks free, and we like free.

The pattern, of course, is Thuja, a very elegant pattern that's perfect for my dad. On size 5 needles, I finished the pair in two nights.

Photographed here on Dad's Russian newspaper. I hope he likes them.