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I seem to be getting behind with my blogging.
I finished the deep V argyle vest - as I've said before I was meant to be knitting this along with Quinn, but the knitting gods were against her and so she ended up taking it back to the US with her to finish.
I'm pleased with how mine turned out. I made some alterations in the upper part to accommodate my row gauge, basically by shortening the pattern - the alterations have worked out and it fits pretty well. The scary steeking part was scary as predicted, but the good directions kept me on course and it worked fine.
I also finished the arch shaped socks I started on my trip back to the UK before Christmas. Despite my gusset/decrease numbers not working out they came out fine. They're comfortable and a bit different.
Next project started is the cobblestone pullover for my friend Andrew - I'm about 2" in. Man-sized sweater's are pretty big.
I cut the steeks on the deep V vest today. They didn't immediately unravel, which is a good sign, although I'll be happier once it's all finished and the facing edges secured down. 
Since I last blogged about the snow etc all that snow has melted, there's been a little bit since, but nothing really to talk about. It's made it seem pretty dark and grimy as the days have continued to shorten. We've reached the turning point now though. Hoorah.
I've been busy/pre-occupied over the last month with some changes to my work, which included a quick trip back to the UK. Apart from the work-related stuff I had a good time visiting Jo and Andrew, who were kind enough to put me up at short notice. They were very good hosts and made sure I had the opportunity to drink proper beer, do some shopping, post Christmas cards, buy some really interesting cheese and eat some very good food including a treacle sponge. I didn't get the opportunity to visit any yarn shops, but I did come home with some more felted tweed - Andrew has asked me to knit him a jumper as he's tired of not finding what he wants that fits in the shops - he's decided on the cobblestone pullover by Jared Flood and managed to get the yarn in time for me to bring it back with me.
I have one project that I want to get finished before I cast on Andrew's cobblestone. And that is the deep V Argyle Vest that I've been working on. Knitting this along with Quinn hasn't happened as she's had some real problems with gauge and sizing etc so she's giving her version a time out. I've finished the knitting of the body and am now preparing myself mentally for doing the crochet steeks and cutting the arms and neck openings. I'm feeling pretty positive about it, but I'm sure it'll be pretty nerve racking.
And finally in knitting news I started a sock at Helsinki airport last weekend on my way to UK. I risked taking knitting needles in my hand luggage and was very surprised, especially on the return leg out of Heathrow, to have no problems at all. I'm sure it's very hit or miss and am not sure I'd risk trying to take larger needles or a project that would be a real disaster to restart if the needles were confiscated - I guess that's where life lines come in.
So, anyway the sock is the arch-shaped sock by Jen Showalter, although I'm trying to do them in 3 x 2 rib as I've seen others on ravely do them. My numbers/gusset decreases haven't worked out quite right, but I'm keeping going to see what happens.
So, now that the Cyd vest is finished I've cast on for the Deep V argyle vest. It took a few gauge swatches before I figured out which size and needles to do/use, I also changed colours during the swatching stage as initially I was going to use a lighter grey, which didn't end up having any contrast with the green. And then a couple of re-starts while I did the usual messing up and miss-counting, and then another restart to switch to smaller needles for the rib. I'm now away from the starting gates and am pleased with the decisions I've made about size, needles etc.
My gauge isn't spot on, but is close. I think width-wise will be fine, especially once it's blocked, but I need to have a think about length-wise and decide if I need to make any minor changes while I'm doing the armhole shaping. I'm at the end of my first skein of green and nearly at the end of chart A, so I guess now is a good time to figure that out.
I've been trying to learn the months of the year in Finnish. I was trying to do this while I was walking the other day with my Finnish neighbour, Saari. She was helpful enough to tell me what some of them mean.
For example: January is tammikuu (oak month), February is helmikuu (pearl month). Not all of them have such succinct translations, but I did learn that October is lokakuu (mud month).
We were having this conversation on the last day of September, it was a beautiful evening - sunny, clear blue sky and beautiful autumnal foliage.
So far October has been living up to its Finnish name. It hasn't stopped raining - we even had thunder last night and the rain was so hard during the night that it woke me up (I woke David up and told him he should probably not cycle to work today, before going back to sleep) and I was surprised when I got up today that the whole area hadn't been washed away, but not surprised that it's still raining!
So, stuck in the house is perfect for knitting. I intend to weave in the ends of my Cyd sweater, which is on the brink of being finnished and Quinn is coming over later as we're in the starting throes of both casting on for the Deep V Argyle Vest by Eunny Yang - that's if we both don't get too bogged down with gauge.
