I decided to knit a simple little baby sweater this week. It's going to have to substitute for the baby quilt I am so behind on . I would post a picture of the quilt, but I would then have to acknowledge the depths of my procrastination. I've been 90 percent finished with the quilt top for a month and a half. I promise to post pictures when I get it together.

This sweater brings up a problem I've noticed with my knitting process. I find that if a project is difficult, I will carefully study the pattern and make necessary changes before I start. With an easy project I jump in without thinking about the incredibly simple things I could do to make it better.

Here is the sweater from Knit It

I don't know if the woven in ends are visible in the picture, but they are in person. I wanted the ends to be secure, so I wove them in using duplicate stitch. Because they are dark and the background colour is white they stand out like a sore thumb. This sweater is just two squares sewn together. I really should have knit it in the round and picked up stitches for the button band, creating a facing for the ends. It wouldn't have been harder, but I didn't think about it until I was faced with all those ends poking through to the right side. I know I could frog it and start over. It only took two days to finish, but as cute as the sweater is it's not that interesting and I don't know If I want to spend the extra time on it. Oh well, I think my rush to find an quick and easy gift has once again shown the benefits of patience and deliberation.

On to better news. Yesterday I finally found the closest LYS. The yarn shop I usually go to is about thirty miles away. I live in Houston, so that is the other side of town. Marie's Yarn Shop is located at 411 S. Friendswood in Friendswood, TX. It is a very cute little shop. The customer service was excellent on my visit and I will definitely be shopping there again. Now the shop does not carry the kinds of yarn that I usually buy. It is largely stocked with acrylics and acrylics blends from Sirdar and Reynolds. But they also carry Lopi and Saucy Sport and Elizabeth Lavold's Hempathy. I noticed several ribbon type novelty yarns, I didn't pay attention to what they were because that's not my thing. I also noticed several skeins of a hand dyed worsted weight wool. I purchased four skeins of Cestari sock yarn, which was a real revelation. Even if you don't like any of the yarns on offer, it the closest place to get good needles on the southeast side of town. I usually run to Michael's when I need inexpensive machine washable yarn for gifts, now I'll go to Marie's instead.