Sorry about the size of the picture, but I thought I would share what happens when you knit on five hours of sleep (I know other people do just fine on five hours of sleep, but I'm a nine-hours sort of gal).
This happens.
The project is my Harmony cardigan made with Rowan Fine Milk Cotton. I'm currently knitting the left front. The button band is integrated with the lower half of the pattern: you knit the lace pattern, then knit nine stitches in a rib pattern and finish with a K1. It is easy and looks elegant. No problems.
Problems arise on the purl side where the pattern has you P1, then knit in rib pattern before purling back across the lace pattern. I blame my lace-knitting ways for instinctively slipping the first stitch instead of P1. I did not realise my error until much later - to be honest - I'm not going to rip back some fifty rows to fix this. I know this means I'm a bad, bad knitter, but so be it.
Besides, the right button band will overlap the left one and we are talking about something that'll be around lower-belly height. I would have ripped back had I made that mistake somewhere much more visible, believe you me.
Speaking of mistakes, I made the mistake of looking at my knitting queue and then looking at the local yarn sale. My planned 2010 Stash Slam Down is going seriously wonky, because I came away with nine balls of Calmer in a rich chocolate brown (which will become Still as soon as I finish Harmony) and four balls of Kidsilk Aura (destined to become Opal). I had my eye on some Pima Cotton in Caftan too, but thankfully I was reminded that I am not much of a cotton knitter (nor do I wear pink). Thank you, Paula, for talking some sense into me. Although there's always Daisy...
No. Well. Anyway. Stashdown.
In wholly unrelated news, I have finally listened to the new Crowded House album and, oh, it is not good. It is really not good. I have been composing an essay in my head for a few days now - all about the trajectory of Neil Finn's creative output (starting with Split Enz, then the various incarnations of Crowded House, through to the Finn Brothers albums, his solo output and collaborations) but I think my 3,000 word essay might just have to stay in my head, because someone else have already said pretty much what I wanted to say.
Heroes should never be allowed to grow old. Or grow a moustache.
Despite myself, I went to a gig yesterday to see this man and his new band, Pajama Club.
Okay, so it is a bad photo. I was a bit too busy enjoying myself to worry too much about photographs.