It's a pretty grim day today, which is perfect for staying at home, maybe do a little house cleaning (doubtful, though I keep losing things in here) and finish up some knitting (let's hope, shall we?) unfortunately, there was no knitting to be done yesterday. Why? Because I got to hang out at a convetion center full of dentists and hygienist, that' why. Say what?!

Jealous much? The bf's dad came down for the annual meeting, apparently this year they are trying to forge things. I got to hang out all day at the marketplace with the rents. Now these dentists know how to do it right. Just for showing up and pretending I was the office manager I got a new stash; toothbrushes and pastes galore! How come we don't get free stuff at our knitting conventions? Hell, even a bag! Oh, that pretending thing? Well, I noticed early on in the day that my badge was color coded to scream "not in the biz!!" and I lost out on a lot of samples this way. After lunch, the mom and I decided to strategically hide our badges and see what happens. We ended up with free shit left and right, hell, we even got invited to presentations that ended with bags of free samples. Do I need or want all this? No, but it was free! It was more about fooling everyone; I must have been some sort of con-artist in another life.

On to some knitting: both sleeves are now done. Just need to do the neck and button bands. I hope this goes fast since I want to be done already and move on to the Hot Lava. The crappy weather should help my cause. Ignoring the bf is another trick I like to try out.

Any suggestions on which buttons I should use? I don't feel like going out and buying any, but these happened to me in my stash.

If you are thinking of knitting this pattern or if you are in the middle of it, can I give you a suggestion? Well, too bad, I'm giving it to you anyway! For a completely seamless sweater (shouldn't all top-down raglans be this way?) pick up more stitches than the pattern tells you to once you start knitting up your sleeves. On the left is my first sleeve, where I followed the pattern faithfully and ended up with a big old hole. Personally, I don't like sweaters with (unintentional) holes in them and hate to see a sweater start it's life out like that. On the right is the much improved second sleeve. I picked up more stitches than I had in the underarm section and then decreased the extras on the second round! Easy peasy!