As you can see, the first of the two sweaters I’m making for my friend’s kids is more than half-way done.  I’ve got only a couple more rows of the body ribbing to go before doing the rolled lower edge, then I get to do the sleeves.

Of course, anything in a kids’ size 6 knitted at 5 stitches per inch goes quickly, especially when it’s just miles of stockinette.  There’s just two more skills needed in this pattern – k2tog, and casting off.  I’d rate this a solid beginner’s hit.

Now, about those sleeves…

My bugbear of the knit-in-the-round genre has always been making the sleeves even.  I am a lazy knitter.  I hate counting rows.  Being the largest idiot in my universe, I try to idiot-proof my knitting whenever possible.  I am not a big fan of two-circ technique for things like socks (I’m much faster on DPNs), but I think for these sleeves, I’ll give that method I try.  I’ll use a pair of longish ones, and work both sleeves side by side, each from its own ball of yarn.  I’ve discussed both alternate circular needle methods and  side-by-side knitting of two items before.   More on this tomorrow after I’ve gotten enough done to photograph.

In other blather, I’m annoyed with Knitters Magazine.  This isn’t an unusual occurrence, but it does have other root causes.  Most recently I’ve been annoyed because of their overall lackluster patterns – the sad, baggy, unflattering things; the unnecessarily tarted up,overembellished items; the ill fitting pieces in flash-in-the-pan novelty yarns that look stupid even on the svelte; and the parade of useless accessories that look more like hand-knitted fungus than anything else.  Then there’s magazine format, use of ill considered yarn description standards, and the treasure hunt to determine the basic info needed to actually work the patterns.  To be sure, the latest issue has its share of those, but it also has one item that looks to be worth knitting – the first one I’ve been tempted to make from Knitters in about five years.  It’s the lace stole on the cover.  I’d show you the thing, but as usual the Knitters site is throwing errors.

Why am I annoyed when the rag has finally presented something other than rags?

Because the issue appears to be in yarn shops and book stores, but not in my mailbox.  My issue has either gone astray, or is lurking somewhere in the post office.  I know several other subscribers here in Massachusetts.  Their issues are also late.  I suspect the magazine’s excellent standard of professionalism is to blame.  The same one that is responsible for the buggy website, poor subscription management/customer service, lousy pattern choices, and severely flawed published instructions.