Friday, July 31, 2009

On Wednesday I made a to-do list that needed to be taken care of before I was going to allow myself to do any knitting on my spiral sweater. I think I set my bar too high! Although I did get nearly everything done (the hotels for Disney are still not booked, but it's not my fault, we're still not set on exact dates for the trip), I also did not get ANY knitting done until after Bean was in bed. I also did not have any time for posting the promised yarn pictures, so I suppose I will start with those.

I don't think I've made any secret of my love of the Knit Witch's hand-dyed loveliness and she certainly did not fail to please this time. My box was stuffed with such beauty and Icouldn't be more excited to have it in my clutches!

I got three more colors from Brittany's Bridge to the Summit collection. (BTW, if you haven't voted in the sock summit indie dyer contest, go do it now!)

First is Brewtopia:


Followed by Portland Rain:



And Oregon Merlot (I think this one might be my favorite):



I also got another skein of Waters of the Willamette because I didn't want my prize skein to be lonely.

Then I got some her Celestial Cloud yarn in the Aries colorway.



And finally I picked up a little lace weight from her Mystical World line in Fire Nymph(I seem to be obsessed with lace lately, even though I haven't acutally tried it)



Although I didn't get any knitting done during the day on Wednesday, I did get a lot done after Bean went to bed that night. In fact I stayed up far too late, but got within 14 rows of completing the second sleeve on my spiral sweater before having to concede defeat (and exhaustion) and go to bed. I finished it the next morning however, and here are the pictures of my progress so far.



I'm really looking forward to Shelly's next post on working the yoke and finishing, but am also going to try and finish some WIPs while I'm waiting. I still have to do the lining and zipper on the laptop case (I hate pulling out the sewing machine).

I also still have to finish the second Pomotomus sock that I've had to rip out TWICE because I'm an idiot who can't follow instructions. In fact, I decided to start putting in a lifeline every couple of inches so that if I do make a mistake I don't have to rip out the whole stupid thing again. If you've never worked with a lifeline, it's wonderful when you're working with a complicated stitch pattern that's hard to frog. A little crochet cotton worked through the stitches of a row will save you so much frustration and it's thin enough that it won't get in your way as you continue to knit.

In not-knit-related news, today is Bean's last day in her summer day camp program. She's going to be so miserable over the next three weeks until pre-school starts! I'm already planning on taking her to the zoo, aquarium and another trip to Cocoa Beach (we're going to try one more time to catch a shuttle launch), but she seriously loves "school" and gets upset when she hasn't been for a few days. Wish me luck!

I'm also at T-minus six days until my girls' trip to Las Vegas! I absolutely cannot wait! Six of us have a three bedroom suite at the Palms for three nights. Is it a bad thing that I'm already trying to figure out what knitting project to bring with me?

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Resolutions for the day....

I will not wind any new yarn for my spiral sweater until:

1. I go to the gym after dropping Bean off at school

2. I remember to mail my package for my Ravelry swap partner

3. My kitchen is clean

4. My craft room has the appearance of a floor

5. The laundry is folded

6. I've put the sheets back on the bed

7. I rember to make hotel reservations for my family (parents, brother and us) for Disney this fall. Somehow, I volunteered to be in charge, and somehow, I keep dropping the ball.

8. I photograph the stash additions, that, while not hidden from Hubby, were not exactly placed out in the open until he left for his trip this morning.

And, then, and only then, will I return to the obsession that is my spiral sweater.

Anyone think I can actually hold out?


Tuesday, July 28, 2009

It's Tuesday again, must be time to pick a winner!

Hi guys! Thank you so much for entering my contest. I really wish I had a tub of thread to send to each of you because I know in the hands of such talented folks, it will become something beautiful. But, since I think Hubby would kill me if I went out and bought enough thread to make this an actuality, I had to settle for picking just one winner. I had 43 entries for the thread and according to random.org, the winner is....drumroll please....Amy!



Competition was a little less fierce for the screen printing kit (go figure, I announced the contest on Ravelry!), and I only had nine entries. Again turning to random.org, the winner is...Lara!



So, if you guys will email me your mailing information to me, I'll get those packages out ASAP!



I'm still slowly but surely working my way through the craft room in an effort to get it a little more streamlined. And so it can hold my ever growing stash of yarn. This whole trying to control my spending by "grounding" myself has been a total and complete wasted effort. Not only did I add the koigu when my mom was here this weekend, but there's also a BUNCH of new Peaches 'n Cream cotton, along with the rest of my order from Knit Witch (which is gorgeous and I will photograph tomorrow after Hubby goes to work).

Monday, July 27, 2009

Can you have a great weekend and a really bad one all at the same time?

Apparently so, because as I look back on this one, it was equal parts fun and suck. My mom came in this weekend and that was the really good part. She hasn't gotten to see Bean in about three months (since she pulled babysitting duty so I could go to Stitches) and she was amazed at how much my little darling has grown. Bean is now holding real conversations and has quite a vocabulary, I didn't know until Saturday that she even knew what binoculars were, let alone that she could pronounce the word correctly.

On Friday, we left the house early to catch a quick breakfast at McD's before taking the munchkin to camp for the day. Mom really enjoyed getting to see the school and meeting her counselor (who it turns out will also be her teacher in the fall). Then we headed off to run some errands. Pretty mundane stuff for the most part. We hit Target to swap out a cabinet component that was dinged up, a store to buy a new part for my mom's CPAP machine (it helps with sleep apnea) and the Sephora to buy some face wash for me. Lilly decided on Thursday afternoon that my old tube of it was actually shampoo and dumped the whole thing over her head! Thank goodness it a) did not get in her eyes and b) was only a small tube, so the mess was limited.

I did, however, decide on two really fun stops for the day. The first, I wanted to go down to the Quarter Stitch and show off my progress on the Spiral Sweater. I had purchased my yarn there and she had asked me to keep her posted on my progress. Well, when we got down to the store, we were about 30 minutes early for their opening. So, we hit the little bar next door to grab a couple of bottles of water and use the "facilities". After chatting with the very friendly, and bored bartender, we were convinced to try her specialty Orange-cicle Martinis (yes, I know, martinis before 11:00 in the morning!), but they were so yummy! So, with a light buzz and lots of giggles, we returned to the knit shop. Oh, not a good idea! I left the store with heaps of praise from the owner on the sweater and also enough blue koigu to make another one and some black alpaca to boot! Oops, didn't quite mean to spend that much money, but hey, I'm helping the economy....right? C'mon though, could you have resisted this color? (The picture doesn't totally do it justice, the color is a little deeper in "real life")


After our stop at the Quarter Stitch, we headed uptown to one of my new favorite spots, the St. James Cheese Company, in the Garden District. Oh my god, is it every yummy. We got a seven cheese plate, BLT (made with crispy Serrano ham and goat cheese instead of mayo) and a bottle of sparkling lemonade with grapefruit essence. I'm always so happy when I leave that place! It's probably good that it's so far from my house though (we live about 30 minutes from New Orleans), because otherwise I would soon be the size of a house!

To wrap up our very good day, we picked up Bean from school and headed home so Mom could take a nap. Bean watched a few cartoons and I started working on the first sleeve for my sweater. Great afternoon! Unfortunately, this is where the weekend starts to take its downturn.

Around 3:00am Saturday morning, I opened my eyes to see my darling little girl standing in front of me. I would usually make her go back to her own bed, but didn't really feel like fighting with her since she was sleeping in a room right next to my mom's and since Hubby was out of town this weekend, there was plenty of room for her in my bed. Unfortunately, she just wasn't really in the mood for sleep and I spent the next three and a half hours trying to convince her that she really did want to. Needless to say, we were both tired and cranky the next morning. Fortunately for me though, my mom was more than content to just hang out around the house with us and have a quiet day. At first, I chalked up the little one's crotchety-ness to lack of sleep, but realized after a little while that she was also running a bit of a fever. Now you know how fevers scare me after the kidney troubles we've had with the poor kid, but she seemed to respond well to Tylenol, was drinking plenty of fluids and didn't seem to be in any pain when she used the bathroom, so I decided not to freak out. She was crying a lot, but again, that's pretty normal when she doesn't feel well.

That night, I was again blessed with a middle of the night visitor. I checked her temperature (102.3), gave her some more Tylenol and a sippy cup of water and let her curl up in the bed with me again. Fortunately, she went right back to sleep and we both slept in until around 8:00 the next morning. And that's when the gastro-intestinal portion of the weekend kicked in. I will spare you the details, but carpet cleaner was involved. By noon though, all seemed to be on the upswing. Mom headed back to Florida. Bean took a long nap and I got to watch the Brickyard 400. Hubby made it home right after the race and the little one was feeling a lot better. We played for the rest of the afternoon around the living room and all-in-all had a really fun night.

So, now I'm sitting here in my lovely, quiet house. I have housework I need to do, but I think I'm just going to sit for a minute and enjoy the quiet.....

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Gratitude

I'm so happy about the response I've gotten regarding my give-aways. I'm going to keep it going for a few more days, but check back on Tuesday for the winners.



I've also really enjoyed the compliments about my laptop cover. As much as I might say that I don't go out seeking compliments, I can't help but enjoy them when they come my way. What can I say, I'm human.



Thank you to Rochard for the request to see some of my Nanny's projects and her picture, it was so comforting to write about her last night. I've really enjoyed reading the feedback about her projects. She would've been embarrassed, but secretly, she would have eaten it up. Thank you.


A few people asked where I got the pattern for the cover. It's from Knit Picks and is the Aguona pattern. They used to sell it as a kit, but now you can only buy the pattern. If you decided to buy their yarn to work it up, buy two balls each of the red and maroon, even though they only say that you need one. I ran out of each about six rows shy of finishing their respective sections. This was my first foray into fair isle knitting and I really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to doing another colorwork pattern soon!


So, I told you last night that I was going to show you my two "Nanny-inspired" afghans and so I shall, but first, there's one more quilt I want to show you. I'd forgotten about it yesterday when I was running around the house looking for things of hers to photograph. She made me this when I was probably about five or six years old and I slept with it on my bed until I married my husband. Would've kept using it, but it's only a double size and for some reason, Hubby doesn't want to sleep in a bed that small. Go figure, we're both six feet tall!


I made this next afghan in the few weeks following my grandmother's death. Those of you that know me have seen how I can become a little obsessive with projects. Well, it gets worse when I'm really sad about something. This one was inspired by a WIP I found in Nanny's things, but couldn't find the yarn for in her stash. I wrote down the pattern as best as I could figure it and went out to find yarn right after I got home from her funeral. It turned out huge and is so wonderful to cuddle under in the winter. Makes me think of her all the time.




This other one, I made for her and my grandfather one of the last Christmases that we still had her. I wanted to show her what I could do with the skills she had taught me. It stayed on her couch until she died when my grandfather sent it home to me. It broke my heart when he gave it back because I had made it for him as well, but he explained to me that he wanted to make sure that I had it because of all the work that had gone into it and knew that it would be better taken care of at my house than at his where my young cousins were frequent visitors.

So, now I'm going to sign off and hang out with my mom who came to visit me and Bean today. I've had fun showing her some of the same projects I've been sharing with you guys lately.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

My Grandmother (aka Nanny)

I had a request via the entries to the give-away to show some of the projects that my grandmother, who I called Nanny, made and show you a picture of her. Gladly will I comply with such a request!

My grandmother was such a great person. She was fiercely loving of her family, an amazing cook and probably the most talented crafter I have ever encountered. She could make anything that she put her mind to, yet still somehow thought that she wasn't good at anything. I think she must have had a very hard childhood to have such a view of herself and her gifts. I really miss going up to visit her and my Papa. No matter what hour we arrived, she would be waiting with a huge pot of potato soup simmering away on the stove. Egad, I miss her cooking! Food certainly equaled love in her house and she sure did love us!

Nanny did a variety of crafts and when she passed away, I took the job of going through her incredible stash of supplies. I will say, she was a bit of a packrat and if she saw something that she thought she could make something out of, it found it's way into the stash. The task took two or three days and often through the project I would pause and try to figure out what she had intended for a particular item or to marvel about a WIP (Work in Progress) that would never be completed. I'm so glad that I was allowed to be the one to do this, it was very cathartic for me. I brought home boxes upon boxes of yarn, supplies, patterns, books, etc.
Nanny taught me how to crochet at a very young age and I have been in love with yarn ever since. She never learned how to knit, claiming it was too difficult for her, but I know, had she tried, she could've made the most beautiful of things. Here are some examples of her crocheting:


This first one is an afghan she made for me as a child. I'm looking forward to Bean getting her "big girl" bed, so she will get to use it, too.


This is a king-sized (!) bedspread out of crochet cotton. It was made for my aunt and uncle and when they split, it somehow came to me. I am immensely grateful for that fact. I am not close with my cousins and am certain that none of them would appreciate the labor that went into that spread.


Here are some dolls that Nanny made for me when I was little. My mom is bringing them over tomorrow for Bean. I hope she likes them!


Nanny was also incredibly talented with a needle and thread and made beautiful quilts.

This one she made for me and it is king-sized. When my brother got engaged, she gave him a king-sized quilt, I asked her when I would be getting one. She responded that it would be when I got engaged. Imagine my surprise when two months later for Christmas, I got this beauty. My mom said the day I asked her for one, she dropped all her other projects and got to work on it. I'm so glad she relented about her "engagement rule" for me because, unfortunately, she did not live to see me and Hubby get engaged or married. Just a note, Nanny always pieced her quilts on a machine, but she quilted them by hand. Pretty impressive for a lady who suffered extremely painful arthritis!


This is the Lone Star quilt that has been on my parents' bed for years.


And the Yo Yo quilt. Also king sized. I'm pretty sure I contributed some of the stitching on these yo yos, and speaking from experience, that is one time consuming project. She also made pillow shams and used some yo yos to embellish Mom and Dad's curtain sashes.


And the last quilt she made. Mom found it in her things. It was just the top and Mom had it quilted. My mother has inherited my Nanny's skills as a quilter, but she doesn't do the quilting by hand. She's like me, she hates the "finishing"!



Lest you think that Nanny was limited to just two types of crafting, here are a couple of her other projects.

These are Time Out Babies. They are wearing clothes that were mine and my brother's when we were little. The little girl carries the kewpie doll that my grandfather brought to me in the hospital when I was born. The little boy is wearing a flight suit because my dad was a flight surgeon when my brother was little.


And this is the family portrait Nanny made. Remember, this woman suffered greatly from arthritis, yet she took tiny scissors and cut out each and every picture.



Here's me! (I'm the kid in the red hat, and the first communion dress, and I hate to say it, the one with the enormous glasses and pumpkin)



And my Nanny and Papa!


And here's the lady herself. She who passed on to me the crafting gene. She who created the great need in me for "stash". I hope my grandchildren will love me as much as I love her. And I hope someday to master her potato soup...



Tomorrow, I will show you the two afghans that I made that were inspired by her. For now, goodnight and thank you for letting me share my Nanny with you.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Happy Tuesday! Knitting, Yarn and Another Give-Away!

I've been knitting! I've been excited about it! Finally I have some semi-finished objects to show you. Well, one is semi-finished. It's the laptop cover that I started a couple of months ago. I got the yarn in that I needed to finish it a while ago, but was in my slump, and then distracted by a shiny new project. But I picked it up a few days ago and hammered out the knitting portion. I was little worried about how it was going to look as it was puckering a bit (my fair-isle skills need a little work still), but it blocked out really well and I'm looking forward to sewing the steeks, zipper and lining. The pattern doesn't call for a lining, but I'm going to put one in anyway to keep the floats from getting snagged when I put the computer in.





I've also been working on my spiral sweater for Shelly's knit-along. I still think she is brilliant for coming up with this pattern and so thrilled that she's sharing the pattern with all of us. I am eagerly awaiting the instructions for the next step! I tried to take pictures, but it's hard to capture exactly how beautifully the lace is working up in the Koigu.

The other WIP I have right now is my Pomatomus socks. I have one done and have turned the heel on the second. I'm loving the pattern and think I will make another pair after this. Perhaps in the lovely Mardi Gras yarn (Rav link) my friend, Kelly gave me. Hmm....

What else? Well, last week was a really good yarn week at Chez Sarah. I know, I know, I'm supposed to be grounded, but in my defense, four skeins were part of sock clubs that I subscribed to prior to my grounding. And one skein I won in a contest by Knit Witch for helping her name one of her entries into the Sock Summit dying contest. And the other two, well, I couldn't make her send me just one skein, right? That would be a waste of postage! So, I ordered several skeins, but she only had two ready as of shipping time. (read: excitement, there's more yarn to follow!) I love Brittany's yarn, she dyes it all herself and it's soft and skooshy and so much fun. She dyed the Tulane yarn that I told you guys about a while back. I still haven't made anything with it, but I did give a skein to one of my friends this past weekend and she was just as pleased with it as I am.


These first three are from my Robyn's Nest sock club. She sent out three months worth since so many people are going to be traveling over the summer and might want to bring their yarn with them.







This one is from my Rockin' Sock Club membership. I love the colors, but am not crazy about the pattern that came with it (pretty, but not my style. Shh, don't tell!), so I think I'm going to use it for a different pair, I just haven't figured out which one yet.



This is Waters of the Willamette from the Sock Summit contest. It's so pretty, I don't think the picture does it justice. I'll have another skein coming in my upcoming order.


And, for all that yarn, this is the only one that I actually purchased this week. It's called Hail to the Redskins, but I got it to make a pair of socks for one of my friends who graduated from FSU. I'm hoping I can convince Brittany to dye some University of Florida yarn soon. I already have some LSU yarn that she made, too, so I think that will take care of all my schools.



What else? Oh, I got two really cute project bags and some stitch markers from Gritty Knits. The bags are just the perfect size for sock projects, and although I really didn't need them or the stitch markers for that matter, I couldn't resist. Plus, her prices are really great and she shipped the out super-quick.

And, if you've toughed it out through this whole post, it's time for another give-away. Actually, I have two prizes this time. You can let me know which one you would prefer, or you can enter for both. But if you win one, I won't pick you to win the other. I want to spread the wealth. :-)

The first prize is a screen printing kit that I have had for ages. I have no idea if the ink is even any good anymore or not, but I'm guessing the screens don't go bad. I kinda want to keep it, but given the fact that I have yet to even try and use this, I think it's best to send it to someone else who may actually enjoy it.


The other prize is a tub of crochet cotton. I got this when my grandmother passed away. She used it to make really cute little snowflakes for Christmas. She also made beautiful doilies and tablecloths. I've worked with the tiny cotton on a few projects, and although I love the results, I don't see myself using it again for a while. If you win, I'll also send the patterns my grandmother had to go with them. She only had photocopies, but they're yours if you win them.










ETA - Grr, the curse of the yarn has returned, I had to frog the second sock because I failed to read the chart correctly.

ETA2 - The contest will be open between now and July 28th when I will select a winner.

Monday, July 13, 2009

I'm home!

So, I've just gotten back from a wonderful weekend trip over to Cocoa Beach, Florida and thought I'd sit down to say "hi" to everyone. I know I've been a piss-poor blogger.

To start out with a little business: Robyn, you are going to be the recipient of the cross-stitch towels and pot-holders. I'm glad they will go to a home where they will be used instead of sitting in a storage box like they have at mine.

I should have another give-away later this week. Yes, I am using the internet to clean out my closet, but I'm hoping that I'm giving away things that you guys might like. I also have a big pile of stuff that's going to Goodwill. (And an even bigger one that's staying here!)

Back to the trip, which was so much fun. We headed out on Thursday afternoon to Cocoa Beach to spend the weekend playing in the surf and sand, and also to catch the shuttle launch that was scheduled for Saturday night. We stayed at one of our favorite little hotels, the Inn at Cocoa Beach. It's an old 1960's hotel that has been renovated by its owners to have the feel of a B&B. The lobby is more like a living room, they have dogs and parrots. In the evening, there is a wine and cheese hour and in the morning you get the most delicious breakfast including homemade muffins and bread, fruit salad, and boil-your-own egg station as well as bagels, toast and english muffins. The whole place has a really great "retreat" vibe to it. In fact, they were a little leary when we told them we were bringing our little Bean. She charmed the socks off of all of them while we were there, though.

Friday, Wes had a meeting in the morning, so Lilly and I tried to occupy ourselves in the room and then ventured out to find a local yarn shop that I had found online. Unfortunately, the place was closed, the owner has apparently been in a really bad car accident and has been unable to run the place. It really is a shame, the store looked very cute and I'm sure it's creating quite a financial burden for her.

Anyhow, that afternoon, we promised Lilly that we would take her out to the beach after her nap time. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and five minutes after we got down there a big storm blew up and we had to abandon the sand. She was less than pleased, but we made up for it the next day and spent the greater part of the day building castles and frolicking in the surf. She had a blast and we had to drag her away to get her to take her nap that afternoon.

As for me, I took advatage of the naps to sit on the very large deck our room had, knit and listen to a Jane Austen novel on my iPod. I got a lot of work done on my Spiral Sweater and will hopefully get some pictures of my progress up for you soon.

The shuttle launch for Saturday was delayed because of lightning strikes from the big storm the day before (the one that messed up Lilly's beach time), so we decided to delay our return home to try and catch it on Sunday. We were assured that the possibility of launch was really good and the day was beautiful. We played a lot in the pool and one of my dear friends from high school came and met up with us for lunch and to wait for the launch with her husband. We had a really fun afternoon on the deck, drinking beer and yucking it up, sure we would soon witness the shuttle rocketing into the sky. Alas, it was not to be. Twenty minutes before launch time a storm blew into the area and the launch was delayed yet again. Boo! (Just checked the news, it was delayed again today, glad we didn't try and wait it out)

All in all, it was a really fun trip. Lilly was a really good girl and such a good traveller. She's pretty used to planes and enjoys getting to be around all the people, so that makes life for us a lot easier when we decide to go places. I am glad to be home though and looking forward to catching up on everyone's blogs to see what I missed while I was gone.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

A new give-away

My newest project is trying to clean out my craft room. This will be a long, drawn out process. #1 - because there is so much stuff in there and #2 -because some of the things were inherited from my mom or grandmom and they are hard to part with. But, that being said, I do have to start getting rid of some things that I will honestly probably never use. I would rather see things go to someone who will use them, so now we have a new give-away.


This week's prize comes to us from the cross stitching world. I have five potholders and around 16 dishclothes that have the panels on the front for personalization via stitching. Most of them are tan, but one of the potholders is cream, two of the dishcloths are blue and two more are black.

If you or someone you know is a cross stitcher and will use these, please post a comment and I will at some point in the next week or so pick a random person to send them to.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Belated Happy Fourth!

I must say, it was a pretty darn good weekend. It started off on Friday with my new carpet being installed in my living room. I am super excited! When we first bought the house and carried out the extensive renovations, my hubby picked out some lovely white carpet for the house, but incredibly impractical given we were planning on having children. Even before Bean came along, though, the carpet in there was looking pretty rough. We used to eat every night in front of the TV and, God love him, Hubby is incapable of eating any kind of spaghetti sauce without spilling some! Then when the baby came along, things just went from bad to worse. We have stopped eating our meals in there, but the damage was done.


So, a couple of weeks ago I decided that we would be getting Stainmaster carpet in that room. Even if we don't eat in there, Bean usually has juice with her, and even in a sippy cup or juice box, there's no certainty that there won't be spills. And, she has an uncanny knack for knocking over sodas! We also decided to go with a darker color to hide any stains that might happen. We were both worried about the carpet messing up the "feel" of the room, but figured we could always go back to white later. How wrong we were! I LOVE my new carpet and think the darker tan just makes the whole room look so much warmer and more inviting! Plus it is super soft, so I just want to roll around on the floor!


We haven't done a whole heck of a lot for the rest of the weekend. I did get a sock made out of the yarn I was complaining about in my last post. I used Cookie A's Pomatomus pattern and love the effect. I think the colors are just perfect for the fish-scale pattern. I shortened the leg of the sock by one pattern repeat to compensate for the extra length I would need for my massive, size 11 feet, but think it looks really nice. I'm still on the leg for the second sock, but have put it aside in favor of another project for right now.


The new project is a knit along for the amazing and talented Shelly's Spiral Sweater. It's just such an innovative pattern that I had to take part. Shelly spun the yarn for her first sweater herself, which makes her even cooler in my book. I've never tried spinning and am afraid to do so given my addictive nature, but I think the people who do it are pretty darn nifty!

I've just about finished up my swatch for the sweater, and the best part is that it will become the beginning of the spiral. I always hate swatching because it seems like such a waste of time to make something and block it even though it won't even be part of the finished project.

Here's what the swatch looked like pre-blocking:


And here's what it looks like while being blocked:

I like this simple lace pattern. By the time I got done with the increases, I already had the repeat memorized and can really zip through it. I'm using Koigu Handpainted yarn and the colors are just delicious. Can't wait to keep going! Bring on Assignment #3, Shelly!