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The Friday night knitting group I've been going to has been great not only for all the girl-time but also for all the knitting I'm getting done. Henry's sweater is coming together so quickly, I've already started to think about what's next on the agenda, but more about that later.

Last week I took a picture of the sleeves after I had knitted up about seven inches, but before I got my act together to actually post an update featuring the aforementioned sleeves I had finished them and moved onto some shoulder seaming and hood-knitting. I'll still show you the picture of the pre-finished sleeves because I know you're dying to see what they looked like once upon a time:

Meanwhile, I'd like to get a little something off of my chest in regards to how the hood is dealt with in this particular pattern. It has you leave ten stitches on either side of the front of the sweater on stitch holders. To work the hood you knit the ten stitches on one side, cast on a bunch of stitches, then knit the ten stitches on the other side, then work X amount of inches worth of a 2X2 rib. After completing the first few rows of the pattern, I looked at the huge gaping hole that was created by casting on all of the stitches between the two sets of ten, thought it was weird that Debbie Bliss didn't have you just pick up the those stitches along the back, then carried on knitting the 2X2 rib. About four inches into it I looked at the pattern and saw that later on I'd be seaming the cast-on stitches to the top of the back. It just seems like picking up the stitches would have been a little more elegant. I briefly contemplated ripping out what I'd knitted, but I decided I'd rather do a little extra seaming than have to reknit all of that ribbing.

I'm now working on the trim around the hood. Here's an action shot of me picking up stitches:

Exciting! Soon I'll be sitting at the dining room table with a needle and yarn cursing like a sailor over all the seams to sew and ends to weave in. I can't wait!

Moving on to discussion of the possible next project. One of Henry's current favorite books is "Fox in Sox". Every time I get to the "Who sews Sue's socks?/ Sue sews Sue's socks." bit I get a hankering to knit me some socks. I've got the yarn for it, now all I need is a pattern. I can't decide if I'll stick with the basic sock pattern I always use or try something a little more fancy. One reason I can't decide is because the colors in the yarn are so bright, they might not need the extra oomph a patterned sock would give them. Also, I really haven't found a sock pattern that's really bowled me over. If anyone has any suggestions let me know.