A Little Stitch & Pitch = Lace Pullover Progress

  Aside from news, a nature program now and then, and my son's addiction to The Simpsons, we've never been big television viewers.  So we've never opted to pay for cable reception.  We're happy to wait for shows we want to watch to come out on Netflix (or Hulu, as I discovered when I had the flu).  Ever since the switch to digital we have reception to one channel.  When we have visitors, it seems like what they miss most in our virtually TV-free zone is sports.  Now, no offense to sports fans, but most sports on TV make my eyes glaze over.  But the one sport I do like to watch is baseball.   Maybe it's just because my son plays baseball, and I've learned enough about the game to enjoy it.  But also, watching baseball does seem to lend itself to knitting.  I hope to make it to an official Stitch N' Pitch game someday.  Anyway, a happy coincidence is that the one channel we can watch broadcasted the one sport I like to watch this week.  I wasn't really rooting for either the Phillies or the Yankees.  But, what a wonderful distraction it was, after saying good-bye to Geisel, to hang out on the couch with the family, watching all those talented players, while finishing up the lace portion of my silky merino pullover.  It also helped that these two cuddled with us while we watched:

Harpo, who actually likes watching television.

Sister, who is just in it for the cuddling.

I tried on the pullover before binding off.  It is currently both a little too snug and a little too short for my liking.  But according to my gauge swatch, it should fit after the process of washing and blocking stretches out the fabric.  I sure hope that gauge swatch wasn't lying to me. 

One of my favorite knitting tricks is to go up a needle size or two, in order to bind off loosely, yet evenly.  I knit the stockinette portion on a US 6, and the lace portion on a US 4.  After trying a size 7 on the first few stitches, I ended up using a size 8 to bind off.  Still not perfect, but like I said, I am counting on the magic of blocking:

I'm hoping to work on the sleeves this weekend, and move on to the next project soon.