Overtaken

No surprise that Wendy has vaulted to the lead in Roscalie compared to my progress on Donegal.

Knitting Pace
Actually, I am somewhat relieve that I don't have to try and maintain a frantic pace to keep up with Wendy. As a result of focusing on Donegal for a significant period of time this weekend, I was able to finish the first sleeve and do a full pattern repeat on the second sleeve.



As with the first sleeve, I think I should be able to finish Donegal by this weekend if work doesnt' keep me to busy at night here in Albany.

Reader Questions
Someone asked if I was doing the colorway using the original Rowan yarns, or the Alice Starmore yarns from "In The Hebrides" (the pattern was published twice with two different lines of yarn).

I'm doing most of the Alice Starmore colors from "In The Hebrides". When I bought the yarns, the one called Wood Green was not available any longer. Yarns International was recommending a similar color from the Rowan Donegal Lambswool Tweed collection (#477). Everyone that has seen the sweater in person says the colors are beautiful on the web site, but most amazing in person.

Another reader asked how I secure my steeks after cutting.

I don't do anything to secure the steeks. I don't machine sew them, I don't hand sew them, and I don't crochet them. They never seem to unravel when I use the Shetland wool (it's like Velcro).

Finally, a reader asks "What is your method of keeping track of the pattern whilst decreasing for the sleeves on Donegal? Do you use the magnetic board a la Wendy?"

I am a much more "fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants" type of knitter than Wendy. I keep count in my head, and when I lose track I count stitches. I will also sometimes forget to do a decrease, so I fudge a little.

This is my second Fair Isle (the first one being Square Dance, a child's pullover), and I'm not overly fond of how the decreases look. After blocking, they're fine, but I'm going to experiment on sleeve shaping the next time I do one of these monsters.

Web Issues
This weekend, and the beginning of this week sucked when it comes to two of the softwares I use for this blog. Blogspot.com, who hosts my blog was having major issues with their service providers, and the blog was down for quite a while on the weekend. When they finally got their act together, Haloscan, which does my comments was down for almost a day.

I apologize to anyone who was trying to get here and couldn't. At some point towards the end of the year, I'm hoping to migrate my site to a more reliable provider. Moveable Type seems to be the top contender at this point. But that migration won't happen for a number of months. Hopefully Blogspot and Haloscan can keep it together for a while longer.

Weather
The weather in the Northeast has been dreadful over the last month, unless you're a fan of cold, gray skies and rain. I'm not. Today is bright and sunny in Albany, so I leave you with a picture of the view from my back deck at home, since I can't be there to see it at the moment.