Super Bowl Sunday:

A perfect opportunity to get a little knitting in, especially when you don't give a rat's ass who wins.  (Although the commercials are kind of fun.)  Thanks to the Steelers and the Seahawks I've made significant progress on Oliver, and here's the proof.  I like the front band much better with a row of twisted stitches setting it off.  The neckband will be folded in half and sewn in place, so I thought I'd try using cotton for the part that will form the lining, to protect my nephew's tender neck from the wool.  Anyway, that's why it's a slightly different color.  On the back, I'm liking the way the vertical and horizontal patterns meld, but will reserve final judgment until I finish the second sleeve and the bottom band. One disappointment:  I've had mixed success getting the travelling stitches even (and I love them so!), especially the ones that cross to the left;  I noticed that Eunny mentions this problem in a recent post.  I first tried following Barbara Walker's instructions for crossing the stitches while both remain on the needle, but I found that for left-leaning crosses, I had better luck when I took the first stitch off the needle, held it between my fingers, knitted the second at the very tips of the needle, then put the first stitch back and knit it.  Pulling the yarn tight and keeping the stitches at the very tips of the needles seem to be important in keeping those crossed stitches more uniform.  (And luckily for me, as Eunny noted, wet blocking helps.)