Go for the gold?

I joined the Knitting Olympics with the sole intention of making a good start on the Hourglass sweater, never expecting to actually complete it. However, if I really push, I might actually be able to finish! Here is the body up to the point where the sleeves will be attached.

Knitting this the second time was much less painful; by knitting every day I did, as expected, eliminate a lot of those ugly lines. There is one, however, that I didn’t spot until I’d knitted another three or four inches. After I finished the body, I wet it and blocked it a little and am waiting to see if that takes care of the problem. So far, so good.

I didn’t have a 12” circular needle for the sleeves, so I began the sleeves on dpns. After three inches or so of not really liking the resulting knitting (uneven between dpns, etc.), I frogged and decided to knit back and forth and seam up the sleeve when it’s completed. I don’t like seaming either, but it seemed the lesser of two evils in this case. I’m over halfway finished with the first sleeve, and since I am recuperating from a nasty cold, I have the opportunity to knit all afternoon and perhaps get this one done and the second one started.

In other news, last week I visited my grandfather, and while I was waiting for him to come out of the post office, I photographed this across the street. I was trying to find a little beauty in the midst of small-town squalor, and I think this works.