Again, posting briefly

Well, I got home horribly, horribly late last night, but I've managed to avoid having anyone get sent anywhere out of town (expensive for the client, and no fun for the person going, really) - mainly me - and I was too darned tired to block out my finished Lesson #2 swatches like a good little bunny. So, I woke up and did it this morning. Doing it by this morning at the latest was key, because then they'll have about 24h to dry before going in the mail. Soggy swatches don't ship well. And, as you can see, these are pretty darned soggy, thanks to my lovely water-spray bottle.


There they are, all done, and I have learned several things from this lesson.

1. The way I had been doing double-decreases, sk2psso, isn't the prettiest. The takes-me-longer s2k1psso(2) - or however it's actually written, I'll remember eventually - is much prettier. My k2tog and ssk's still rock, though.
2. Doing a long-tail cast on correctly results in much curlier stockinette, which is much harder to get to lie flat and behave for blocking.
3. Blocking requires a lot more pins with curly knitting.
4. I am perilously close to running out of light pink yarn, and there is no nearby Stich DC from which to get more.

In other news, this

is in the Ralph Lauren window up the street. Just shy of $200. (Over, with DC tax.) It's very pretty. I really like it. Here's the thing: I can't justify $200 on just buying the top... but I could totally justify $200 for yarn to make something similar. What's up with that??