So a Frog crosses the street.....

I am frogging my Jaywalkers (sounds like the beginning of a joke). The decreases are looking a little too funky.

I seem to have an odd knitting style...self-taught at a very young age and left-handed apparently make for an interesting technique. Or so I have been told on numerous occasions. Been working on unlearning my bad habits by taking technique classes over the years, but some things are harder to unlearn than others.

Decreases always seem to be the most troublesome. It's the way the stitches layout. My decreases always seem to go left when they should go right and vice versa.

Since my decreases were looking little odd after the first few rows following the pattern, I switched to a k2tog, pass next stitch over the k2tog stitch. This definitely was not the correct thing to do. Not sure what was going thru my mind at the time.

So, back to the drawing board. Might try some different yarn I have lying around. This pink & grey Step is a little *too* 80s for me. It's actually sort of grating on my nerves first thing in the morning. I mostly work on these babies on the bus to and from work.

Austermann Step is interesting yarn. The Aloe & Jojoba are very noticeable - not in a bad way... my hands feel nice. But the yarn splits something terrible for me. I am using these blunt little stubby 4 inch dp needles. Which may the problem. Honestly, I have huge hands. Come from a long line of Dairy and Fisher folk -- that's my explanation for the wide palms :) These short little needles are incredibly tough for me to work with. I really need something longer. Hence my earlier rant about not being able to find 2mm dp needles anywhere locally.

Oh! I almost forgot. Cindy, a very thoughtful co-worker, was up on Whidbey Island this weekend and brought me back 2 of the sweetest skeins of Alpaca that you have ever seen. They were spun by a 10 yr old girl whose family raises the Alpacas.

Its a 4H joint. Gotta love that.

Now I need to figure out how to best make use of 3 oz thick & thin alpaca.

Have to admit, I am also sort of itching to dye them. There happens to be a glorious Earthues Dye Kit calling out to me from a shelf in my basement...

Can I also point out how well I have trained my co-workers? I have only been with this company since March and they are already starting to bring me yarn.

My manager is soon off to Italy for a few weeks. I wonder what sort of hints I should drop before he goes?