I finished the second sleeve of the beaded sweater from Vintage Knits on Inishmor, the biggest of the Aran Islands. We ended up staying there for 2 nights instead of one because it was so windy and stormy that they cancelled all the ferries. I waited to finish the sweater so that I could block it out since it seems a little short to me and I wanted to stretch it out a bit.


Here are all the pieces pinned out on my homemade blocking board that I made on Saturday night with the help of a staple gun, an iron, and a bottle of wine. It's a big piece of plywood with thick foam on top, and then some batting, and then white cotton fabric that I ironed a fusable grid thing to (I found it in the quilting section of Joann's). It works very well and I am happy with it. I have enough stuff to make another one the same size for when I have big things to block.

The poor sweater will have to wait for my needles to arrive from Ireland to be finished. It turns out that you can only knit on the plane on the way to Ireland, not on the way back. And since we were running so late that luggage couldn't be checked anymore, I had to leave my little baggie with a million needles and an almost finished tank top (from the cover of Vintage Knits) at the Dublin Airport. My wonderful aunt went and picked up the baggie and mailed it to me last Friday, so hopefully I will get my needles soon. All that's left to do after I attach the sleeves is to pick up stitches all around the neck and knit 5 rows of rib.