WIP Wednesday: You bind your left front off, you cast your right front on...

...you fold your back panel up and you carry it all around!  You do the knitty gritty then you sew it all around, that's what this cardigan thing is all about.  This weekend I finished up the left front panel on my Lexeme cardigan.  The knitting itself is still pretty boring, basic stockinette with shaping for the most part.

But there was fun to spare when I did some of that knitting while at a birthday party for a local yarn dyer here in Austin.  Dizzy Lettuce yarns have been my weakness at Gauge for yarns now, and she also teaches dyeing classes at the store.  So when she posted about having a little celebration in the store, Mom and I decided to stop by, bring some food, eat some food, and just generally be a little social.

I was only able to get a few rows done, because there was other less common crafting to be done: balloon animals!  One of the guests brought all of the necessary accoutrements and gave us a crash course.  It was interesting, I think knitting gave us all some advantages in spatial manipulation, but I still wasn't really comfortable dealing with the balloons.  I can't tie those knots in the end to keep the air in them to save my life.

Thankfully, I have my mom.  She helped me make my first animal: a pink weenie dog with gray pearl collar and leash.  I named him Pierre and gave him a Sharpie mustache.  Then, because she loves hummingbirds, I tried my hand at twisting up one of those, complete with flower.  Here is my rubber menagerie, along with the two completed panels of my cardigan:

See, don't those random shapes of knitwear-to-be look more interesting when paired with a couple of balloon animals?

While I was there, I also found a skein of Dizzy Lettuce that had to come home with me:

This is Argenbright in Rose, a fingering weight merino and silk blend with silver.  I needed it.

And if you need more WIP posts, check out Tami's Amis.