I remembered!

Wow - that really did drive me crazy! I spent the next couple of hours trying to figure out what else I had done new with the Coachella tank top... And then it hit me - it didn't really have to do with the actual knitting - just the prep for knitting. I had heard that you could dip the plastic wire of the circular needles into hot water and then they wouldn't curl as much. I did that with the metal size 7s with which I started the piece (Mrs. Johnston would be so proud! I just typed this sentence ending with "with" - but her HS grammar training overpowered me, and I felt guilty, and so I rearranged the sentence so as to not end with "with." Wait - was that a run-on sentence?). It did work for a while, but they finally returned to their original shape. The bamboo size 9s I'm using right now I did not dip in hot water - I heard that it might swell the wood. So the Coachella is a little ball in the middle of the circular needle's curl....

Also, I realized I was doing something else new. I've never really wound the yarn around my left hand to help control the tension while knitting - but I've found that if I wrap the yarn around my pinky and then around my index finger, it really does help! Gosh! and even when purling, I wrap it a couple times around my index finger. I've read several knitting books that recommend doing this - and I'd tried it out, too, but I'd always dropped the wrapped yarn, thinking it didn't help me that much. Now, it's almost a habit to pick up the yarn like that. Maybe I'm making big strides....

Amanda, the NH Knitting Mama, has designed a really cute candy bag that looks like it will be a fun knit. I think I'm going to start one up, so I can stop stressing about the fact that the Coachella won't be ready in 2 weeks, and so I can get entered for some swag!!! Check out her site here for more info!

I just heard from my sock-knitting mommy friend, and I think we're going to knit these socks from Knitty.com. I am so excited!!! They will be my first socks, and I love short socks (whatever you call them - ankle socks? anklets?). I think I want to have them started up so I can knit them while lying on the beach in St. Thomas in 2 weeks. We'll see if I really want to knit while lying on the beach - at least I'll be able to knit them while flying down there!

No pictures...

There has been little knitting going on around here. A lot of that has to do with the TV-ban I've imposed on myself.... Except for a little So You Think You Can Dance (which we all know I can't knit while watching), I'm not watching much TV at all. Hubby is gone tonight for a band practice, so I think I'll settle in with some good Food Network shows (love me some Alton Brown!) and knit away!

I started on my cousin's Coachella tank top - I only have about 2 inches done. This has been a good learning experience for me already. I've done several new things with this. I SWATCHED!!!! yes, I did! I've never made a swatch before. The swatch itself was a disaster, because, for some reason, I didn't want to knit it on the size 9 circs that I'm actually knitting the piece with. Instead, I used some horrible plastic straight needles. I've used plastic before, but these were really bendy, and I couldn't get a tight, even stitch on them. I can't remember where I got them, or what I used them on.... But back to the swatch.... the stitches were loose and floppy - but I plowed ahead and decided that the bamboo and metal circs that I'll be using would provide the gauge needed. And I was right, so far!

Also new: I did the Long-Tail Cast On. And I LOVE it! So pretty, so neat! Much nicer than the knitting cast on I've been doing.

There was something else new that I've tried with this, but I can't remember what it was right now. Hmmm.... completely gone. If I remember, I'll post it. Geez, now that's going to bother me...