Have You Any Wool?

busy busy

Last week, I was so happy to see winter end and spring begin. We've had a mild winter in the area of Germany that I live in, but just knowing that it's officially spring somehow makes me feel better. Unfortunately, Mother Nature has decided to play a cruel joke on us, making it snow every single day since spring began. No snow all winter long, and now suddenly my crocuses, tulips and hyacinth blooms are hidden under a white blanket. Boo.

I know I shouldn't complain, because many of you have been buried under several feet of snow all winter long, but if it's going to snow, it should at least do so in the proper season, don't you think?

I was getting all geared up to start some spring knitting, but I've decided instead to work on finishing up some of my long-standing projects so I can start anew. A knitter's spring cleaning, if you will. The projects would really like to finish are my Tangled Yoke cardigan, Isabella, and the Victoria shawl (Ravelry links).

I don't know what my deal is with Tangled Yoke, but I just do not want to work on it. The bottom half of the body is completed, and I'm on the sleeves. I chose to knit both sleeves at the same time, in hopes that it would encourage me to finish faster, but it seems to have the opposite effect. I really should get to finishing this one up, because it would be great to have it to wear this spring.

I started Isabella last June, and finished up the back pretty quickly. Then I screwed up the front, ripped it out, stuffed it in a knitting bag, and forgot about it. I picked it up again a few days ago, and I'm making progress on the front. I really need to get moving on the Victoria shawl, because I would like to give this one to my mother for Mother's Day. I'm halfway through the knitted-on border, and it's boring and tedious. I will persevere, though. I think my mom could really use it in her overly air-conditioned office.

Even though I should be focusing on those old projects, I'm still tempted to start something new. Lately, every sweater I've swatched for hasn't worked out, so I find that I'm sticking to sock knitting. It's portable, it's reliable, and it's still cold enough to have to wear wool socks, and new socks always make me happy. These bright striped ones, especially.

Pattern: basic stockinette socks with picot cuff
Yarn: Vesper sock yarn in Aquamelon
Needles: 2.5mm Addi circulars
Time to knit: March 14 to March 24, 2008
Notes: Love the stripes! The bright colors make me happy.

I've also been doing some spinning lately. I had stepped away from the wheel for a couple of months, but now I'm back in my spinning groove. I had a commissioned spinning job that I finally finished up last weekend, and now I'm working on some brightly colored stuff for spring.

Some of the yarns pictured were actually finished up months ago, I just hadn't gotten around to taking photos and measuring the yardage. The details are all on the Flickr pages, if you're interested.

As if that isn't enough, I've been hitting the dyepots again, as well. I'm waiting on a shipment of base yarn, which should be here soon, so I'll be dyeing up new colors in the near future. Today, I dyed up some rovings, and a couple of custom orders, and it feels good to be playing with color again. I'm hoping to have a shop update the first week of April. For now, though, everything that is currently listed in the shop is 15% off!

time flies when you're having fun

Well, it's been a while since you last heard from me, hasn't it? The past month has been crazy, but in a good way. Travis arrived home safely the first week of February (a week later than anticipated), and everyone has adjusted extremely well. He's gone back to work this week, so we're settling into a new routine of normal once again.

While Travis was on leave, we took the opportunity to travel to Paris. It's a fabulous place to visit, and I was so excited to be able to travel again. It's been hard, spending fifteen months in Europe without being able to really go anywhere. I suppose I could have, but I'm not really brave enough to set out on my own with a 5-year-old and a 2-year-old in tow. Flying back to the United States for Christmas was enough for me :)

In Paris, we saw the usual tourist attractions:

The Louvre

Surprisingly, the kids held up to several hours of walking around the museum. We saw the Mona Lisa, which, frankly, was a disappointment. It's so much smaller than many of the paintings in the museum, and it's all by itself on a wall covered with glass. There was a very large crowd in front of the painting, and the glare from the overhead lights off the glass made it hard to see. Oh, well, I guess at least we can say we've seen it!

From the Louvre, we walked down the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe. It was quite a long walk, which involved much whining from the Princess (Zippy got to ride in the backpack on Travis' back). She was fairly excited to see the Arc de Triomphe, however, and had a good time chasing the pigeons that were seeking shelter beneath the Arc.

We visited Notre Dame du Paris

as well as the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur.

And of course, we couldn't visit Paris without seeing the Eiffel Tower.

There were also two days spent at Disneyland Paris, but clearly that part of the trip was more for the kids than for us. I could have done without going there, but the kids had a wonderful time. We figured that after dragging them through Paris, we had to do something to keep them entertained as well.

There has also been knitting happening over the past month. Mostly socks, because they are portable. I finished up several pairs, including a pair that I started last August.

You can go to Flickr to get the details on each of these projects, if you so desire. I'm too lazy to repost the details again here :)

the great ufo resurrection

I've noticed that a lot of bloggers are doing this WIP Wednesday thing, and I think it's a great idea, so I'm going to join in. I'm hoping that this will get me to post more frequently, and to not just pop in with a finished object from time to time, then fade into the background again.

This post is full of old WIP's that have recently been put back into the rotation after months of sitting in time-out. I've been in an early spring cleaning frenzy lately, and it has extended to my knitting. I went through my sock yarn stash a couple of weeks ago and decided that though I really love the colors of handpainted yarns in the skein, I rarely love how they look when knit up. I knew it was time for a destash, and Ravelry came to my rescue. I sold or traded almost all of what I wanted to get rid of, and that made me feel so much better. I also went through my knitting baskets, and unearthed several projects that I had completely forgotten about.

First up is the Victoria shawl that I started last June. I found it crumpled up and buried in the bottom of a basket. I was knitting this for my mother, because the office she works in is overly air-conditioned, and she's always looking for something to keep her warm. I thought a shawl would be a nice thing for her to keep at work, and throw over her shoulders when she needed it. I have no idea why I set this aside, because it only took me a week to finish the body of the shawl. There were five 16-row repeats completed, and I had to knit twenty more. I enjoyed every stitch. I couldn't wait for my quiet evenings (you know, that precious time of day after the small people are snoozing happily in their beds) so I could curl up in bed with old Seinfeld episodes and my lace knitting. It doesn't look like much in the photo, because taking a picture of lace in progress is always a challenge, but it's coming along quite nicely. I finished the final body repeat last night, and began the border.

Next, the Winding Cable knee socks that I started last summer, but abandoned halfway through the foot of the first sock. Again, once I picked these socks up, I couldn't figure out why they were set aside. Well, the drunken cable part on the front is fun, but the twisted rib isn't quite as enjoyable. Still, I know that the first sock fits great, so that should be an incentive to get cracking on sock number two.

I am also working on a few baby knits for a friend who is due to have a baby girl in a few short weeks. I started knitting Elizabeth Zimmermann's February Baby Sweater from the Knitter's Almanac, but I ran out of yarn.

So I ripped, and started again, adjusting the sizing and gauge, and skipped out on the lace pattern because I couldn't get my numbers to work quite right, but still fell short of a finished sweater. Boo. I was disappointed, because the yarn is buttery soft handspun merino (from gorgeous roving that Keri sent me several months ago), but the four ounces of yarn that I have just weren't cutting it. That tail you see at the bottom of the photo is all I had left, with two inches of sweater body to go. Instead, I think I'll use this yarn to knit a soft, warm hat or bonnet, and maybe some little bootees. Tiny pink mary janes, or something. I still haven't had the heart to rip it out, but I did face the facts (not to mention the impending due date), and started a new February Baby sweater.

This time I used some leftover Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece (color: Pink-a-boo), and will have plenty for this sweater, as well as a pair of Saartje's Bootees.

That's it for this week's WIP roundup. I do have some other projects that I'm working on here and there, but these ones have been my main focus. Things have been crazy around here. I spent Sunday evening getting my shop updated (there's still lots of good stuff available! I'm not above shameless self-promotion, you know), and I've been trying to get various other things taken care of before this week ends. It's funny, because we've had so much to do here this week, but time feels like it has slowed to a snail's pace. It was expected that Travis would return sometime next week, but he called today and told me that there was a possibility that he could be home this weekend. I'm trying not to get too excited, because I've been through this before, and I know that sometimes travel arrangements change, or weather holds things up, or whatever. It's difficult, though. I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much, but it's tough. It's funny, Travis returned from his last deployment on Super Bowl weekend, just in time to watch the Patriots win. Here we are a few years later, and he may be home in time to watch the Patriots play in the Super Bowl again. Well, I'm probably the only one who finds that amusing, but that's OK ;)

I highly doubt I'll get much in the way of sleep over the next few days, but I'm sure the blogging will be sparse, once again. Y'all are used to that by now, though, aren't you? I hope to stop in from time to time over the next month or so, but I have no idea how much knitting I'll even be able to get done. My regular schedule will probably continue for the first few weeks he's home, but only because he has to go through the whole weeklong "reintegration" process the Army has after returning from a deployment, and he also has to prepare his application for grad school (which, of course, is due at the beginning of April, and he hasn't been able to take care of it while deployed). It's mildly annoying, but I know that it won't last long. We'll still get to spend time together as a family (and I plan on hiring a babysitter so he and I can have an evening out, as well), and we also have a trip to Paris at the beginning of March to look forward to!

hot off the needles

I just don't have it in me to come up with a clever post today, but I do have a new sweater hot off the needles that I wanted to share. I'm amazed at how focusing on one or two projects at a time gets things done faster. I've had this Rib and Cable cardi on my needles since August, but have only worked on it sporadically. I think part of the issue was that it is knit in black yarn (boring, but it goes with just about everything, and I really needed a new black cardi) in 4x4 ribbing. So, for a knitter who gets the majority of her knitting done at night after the wee ones go to bed, this project wasn't always the best choice.

I also hit a few small snags along the way. First, as I was about halfway through the second sleeve, I realized that there was no way I would have enough yarn to finish up the rest of the sleeve, not to mention the collar. It was frustrating, because the pattern stated that it would take 10 skeins of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK to make the smallest size. This is the size I made, with the very same yarn suggested in the pattern. I had a bag of 10 skeins of the Cashmerino DK sitting in my stash, waiting for the right project, and then this book came along this summer, and I knew they would be perfect together. I was getting ready to email the shop I had originally purchased the yarn from, to see if I could get a single ball of Cashmerino, when it occurred to me to check on Ravelry. Wouldn't you know it, there was another knitter there who had a single ball of black Cashmerino DK that was marked for sale or trade. Even better, it was from the very same dyelot! A few emails later, and I had the yarn to complete my sweater. Then, as I finished the sweater, I realized that I had no buttons for it. I couldn't find what I wanted locally, so I had to order some buttons and wait for them to arrive in the mail. I sewed the buttons on yesterday (all twelve of them), and voila!, a new cardigan.

The Details:
Pattern: Rib and Cable Cardigan from Family Knits by Debbie Bliss
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK in black, 11 skeins
Size: small (34-36")
Needles: 3.75mm Pony rosewood circulars
Time to knit: sometime in August, to 12 December 2007
Modifications: The only thing I did was lengthen the sleeves by 1/2", because I wanted them to come down slightly past bracelet length. They came out exactly the way I wanted.

Overall, I'm extremely happy with this cardi. It fits perfectly, and can be worn with practically anything. It is extremely comfortable, and very warm. My only concern is that this yarn will pill like mad. Even while I was working with the yarn, it showed signs of wear. I've never used this yarn before, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't wind up looking like absolute crap after just a few wearings. If anyone else has any insight into how well this yarn holds up, I'd love to hear about it.

All of this focusing has helped me finish not only this cardi, but another pair of socks as well. Right before I sat down to write this post, I wove in the last end on my second Loksins! sock. Unfortunately, it's dark right now, and the photos I attempted didn't come out very well. I did get some without using the flash, but it took a very long exposure to let enough light get into the lens so that the details showed up. Of course, that long exposure requires remaining completely motionless for the duration of the shutter opening, and I can't sit still for more than a second, so all of the photos were blurry. I guess the socks will have to wait until tomorrow. Until then, if you're looking for something to do while surfing around the internet, you can hop on over to my shop and check out the huge update I did last night. There is a ton of the new superwash wool/nylon blend sock yarn, like I used for my Gentleman's Fancy Socks, some alpaca/merino/silk roving, as well as a few skeins of handspun. </shameless plug>

 

back in the saddle

Wow, has it really been a month since I last posted? The blog break wasn't intended, it just sort of happened. I have been very busy over the past month, and when I had a chance to sit down in the evenings to post, I just couldn't muster up the energy. PumpkinMama wrote a post recently, pondering the effect of sites like Ravelry and Flickr on blog posting. I would say that for me, they have both reduced my desire to post here. I start out by uploading my photos to Flickr, and then updating my projects in Ravelry. By the time I'm finished with that, I feel like I'm showing a project in triplicate, and have lost interest. Flickr is so easy, because I can upload the photo, write a short description, and be done with it. Blogging is much more complex, with all the thinking and typing, trying to be clever and interesting, and then there's all that linking. I find it usually takes me at least an hour to finish a post. You can't tell that from reading it, though, can you? :) That being said, I'm not ready to give up blogging, because I really like the community feeling I get from writing here and reading other blogs. I'm not really into message boards (too many tempers flare over seemingly innocuous comments), and find the commenting on blogs to be a much better way to communicate. I know I'm terribly inconsistent with responses to comments left here on this blog, but please know that I do read them and appreciate that you take the time to leave a little note. They mean a lot to me.

So, onward to the knitting. The past month has been very busy. I've finished a few small projects, all gifts, but I feel like the big projects keep dragging on because I can't stop myself from casting on for something new every two days. I'm close to finishing a cardi I started back in August, but have to wait for the buttons to arrive in the mail for an official finished object. I'm up to the armholes on my Tangled Yoke cardigan, have several socks on the needles, a Tomten jacket in handspun for the Princess*, and I just started a Central Park Hoodie at the end of last week. Clearly, my knitting plate has been very full. Not much spinning action lately, on account of all the knitting I want to get done.

Click the picture to be taken to Flickr for the details

I'm trying to be good and start finishing up some of these lovely projects before I get tempted to cast on for yet another new project. I don't have any holiday knitting to do, but we are headed to the US to visit family for Christmas, and I'd like to finish at least two of these projects before we leave. Then comes the fun of deciding what I'll bring with me to knit en route. Of course before that, there's packing, kenneling the dog, arranging transportation to the airport, and the fear of traveling overseas by myself with two small kids to worry about. But why get ahead of myself?

While I'm already posting, I figure now is as good a time as any to show the two pairs of socks I finished over the last month, both of which were given to friends as gifts.

Pattern: Child's French Socks from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush
Yarn: ShiBuiKnits Sock in Bark
Needles: 2.25mm Susan Bates DPN
These socks were a gift to a good friend of mine who moved back to the States last month. I was so sad to see her go, and wanted to make her something nice as a going away gift.

Pattern: Making Tracks by Wendy Johnson
Yarn: my handspun, spun from Funky Carolina merino/tencel roving in Berry Dark
Needles: 2.75mm (US 2) Bryspun DPN
I made the mistake of converting this pattern from toe-up to top-down. I much prefer knitting top-down socks, and thought I had plenty of yarn to finish these socks. One of the benefits of knitting toe-up socks is being able to knit the entire foot, then knit the leg until you run out of yarn. I lost this benefit by converting the pattern, and it was a nail-biting finish. I had one yard of yarn left over, after grafting the toe closed on the second sock! These socks were a birthday gift for my friend Tonya. She loved the pair I made her last year, and I knew that she'd love a new pair for her birthday this year.

That's what I've been up to, at least as far as knitting is concerned. I also have a whole bunch of yarn and roving to list on Etsy, but haven't managed to find a good block of time to get that done. I'll let you know when I get around to it. I hope you all are well!

*I've been struggling with how much of my personal life I want here on this blog, especially stuff about my kids. I've seen so many people have their children's photos stolen and used for questionable purposes. I know that for the past three years I've used my kids names here, but from now on, they will be known as the Princess and Zippy. Silly, perhaps, but it makes me feel a little more comfortable.

socks, continued

I've been working diligently on whittling down the pile of socks in progress. I think Socktoberfest has renewed my sock-knitting desire, because it had disappeared for a short while. Clearly, it has returned, because socks are all I want to work on. Part of it has to do with the temperatures, but the biggest reason for the current sock streak is simplicity. Socks are so portable, which I need right now, and relatively mindless. At the end of the day, when I get a chance to knit, I don't want to have to think. Two of my socks in progress are fairly complicated patterns, which means they've been neglected. One pair was very close to completion, so I sat down last night and finished them up while watching a movie.

Pattern: My own
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock lightweight in Ruby Slippers
Needles: 2.25mm Plymouth Bamboo DPN
Notes:  These socks were knit from my own pattern, which I really don't consider a complete success. I was trying to design something that would work well with handpainted yarns, but I didn't really achieve my desired effect. The stitch pattern I used (I thought it was "Checkered Acre" from  Barbara Walker's first stitch dictionary, but upon closer inspection, it's not, so I don't know what the stitch pattern is, except something that I jumbled up) is highly textured. For this reason, I kept the patterning on the leg only, and went with a 3x3 ribbing on the foot. Otherwise, I think the socks would have been terribly uncomfortable in shoes.

While I don't consider these socks a complete success, I don't consider them a complete failure, either. I really needed a pair of red socks, and the color of this yarn is a perfect match for many items in my wardrobe. They are comfortable, and stay up reasonably well. So, while I feel the design is not that great, they are wearable, which is all that really matters.

Pattern: Waterfall by Miss Babs
Yarn: Miss Babs Yummy sportweight in Waterfall (from the Woolgirl sock club
Needles: 3.25mm Brittany birch double points
Notes: I've decided that though sportweight yarn knits up quickly, I don't like it for socks. The colors in this yarn are gorgeous, and the base yarn itself is very soft, but when used for socks, I find it too bulky. I prefer my socks knit at a gauge of 8 to 9 stitches per inch. My gauge was slightly off for this pattern (6.5 stitches per inch rather than the 6 spi called for), yet the socks are still loose and baggy. The only modification I made was to add an extra lace repeat to lengthen the leg of the sock, which is still a bit shorter than I would like.

The reason I joined the sock club was to break out of my comfort zone, and these socks helped me do that. I'm not crazy about them, but at least I gave it a shot.

I finished these socks up last night in between listing yarns in the shop.

There is a whole bunch of new sock yarns, as well as some handspun. I'm still waiting on a shipment of roving to arrive, but I'm hoping to update the spinning fiber in the next week or two.

sigh of relief

This three-day weekend has been a godsend for me. I'm finally feeling like my batteries are recharged, and I'm ready to go again. Since the start of school in September, I feel like I've been going nonstop. The days and weeks are flying by at lightning speed, but the months are crawling at a near standstill. It's so weird how that happens. All around me, people are amazed that it's already October, and all I can think is that it's only October? There are still four more months of this interminable deployment left, and time keeps dragging ever so slowly.

Anyway, I went into the weekend with very little in the way of plans. I took the kids to the local pizza joint/indoor playground on Saturday for a few hours, but that was about it. I had planned on taking them to the zoo today, but A told me this morning that she didn't want to go anywhere today, that she preferred to stay home. Who am I to argue with that? She had a friend come over to play, so while they were otherwise engaged and K was napping, I spent some quality time in the kitchen. Spaghetti sauce with meatballs that spends hours simmering on the stove, and apple pie with homemade pie crust. Yum.

Weekends also seem to be the only time I get any spinning in. During the week we're so busy, I don't have time to sit down at the wheel. But on Saturday and Sunday mornings, after we've eaten breakfast and the kids are entertaining themselves, I get some time to sit and spin. This weekend I managed to finish up some merino that I've been slowly plugging away on when I get the time.

This is 920 yards of DK weight two-ply merino, spun from roughly 10 ounces roving dyed by Erica, in the color "Ice Princess". I had seen this color spun up on Erica's blog, and thought that the colors would be perfect for A. I emailed Erica and asked if she would be kind enough to dye up enough for me to spin to make a Tomten jacket. I'm sure there will be enough for the sweater itself, but I was hoping to put a hood on it, but I'm not sure how that will work out. I'll just wait and make the decision when the time comes.

As for knitting, I did work on several of the socks in progress that you saw in the last post. It seems like some of you would be a little antsy having that many WIP's at once. Sometimes it drives me crazy, but most of the time, I don't really notice how much is actually on the needles. I keep projects scattered strategically throughout my house, so I work on something different depending on what room I'm in. I also have a mindless project ready to go at all times, to take with me to dance classes and the like. I can't sit still, and always need to have something to work on. The socks I made the most progress on this weekend were the ones I mentioned that I had started, even though there were many other socks on the needles.

This is the yarn and pattern from the first installment of the Woolgirl sock club. I've resisted joining a sock club up to this point, but when I saw the signups for this one, I caved. The price was right, and I managed to sign up before all the slots were full. Though I have more sock yarn than I'll ever be able to knit, I am really glad I joined. This first month was a sportweight yarn, which is something that I don't normally use for socks. I know they knit up much faster than fingering weight socks, but I don't find them to be all that comfortable in shoes. However, this yarn is incredible. It's amazingly soft, and the colors are gorgeous. These may not become my favorite socks, but I think they'll do a lovely job at keeping my feet warm this winter. The pattern name and yarn color are both "Waterfall", from Miss Babs. As you can see, I'm already past the heel turn on sock #2, and I imagine that I'll finish it up by tomorrow.

 

socks for socktoberfest

Clockwise from top: Test-knit socks for another blogger, using Wollmeise in Rosenrot, Child's French Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush using ShibuiKnits in Bark, socks of my own design using STR in Ruby Slippers, Winding Cable knee sock using Lorna's Laces in Manzanita, and simple stockinette socks using Vesper sock yarn in Neapolitan. Does anyone notice a theme here?

I took this photo on Tuesday, fully intending to post about my goals for this year's Socktoberfest. I went around the house and gathered up all of my socks in progress, and set them out all in one spot. This made me realize that I need to start finishing some projects before casting on for something new. I chose the pair that were closest to being finished, and focused my attention on those.

Pattern: Simple stockinette socks with picot cuff and round toe, knit over 64 stitches
Yarn: Knitterly Things Vesper sock yarn in Neapolitan
Needles: 2.5mm Addi circulars
Notes: I tried very hard to keep the striping sequence in order when I knit the heel flap and gusset, and on the first sock I got it right on the very first try. I started the second sock in the same place as the first, but I had to rip back the heel turn four times to get it right. Weird. I also had to rip back the toe decreases on the second sock. I thought I had started the toe decreases in the same exact place as the first sock, but on the last two rounds of toe decreases, there was a brown stripe showing up. I had to fix it, because I knew that little bit of brown would drive me crazy. I'm not usually such a perfectionist, but I've gotten to the point now where I want my self-striping socks to match exactly.

And just because it's been a while, I thought I'd throw in a shoe shot:

Now that I have one pair down, I should be working on the next closet pair to being finished, which would be the ones I designed in STR. I'm not in love with the pattern, and those have been lingering on my needles since June, so I'm not in a big rush. The Child's French Socks should be a main focus, because they are a gift for a good friend who will be moving very far away next month. The test knit socks should be a focus, too, because the designer will be releasing the pattern soon, but it's one of those patterns that need my undivided attention, which is something I haven't had time for lately. And the Winding Cable socks, well, I think those are just destined to be a very long-term project. What the hell was I thinking, knitting knee socks covered in traveling cables and twisted stitches? They're pretty, but tedious.

So with all of these socks, and *cough*threesweaters*cough* in progress, what do you think I did? Cast on for a new pair of socks, naturally. At least the new pair is in sportweight yarn, and even though I only started them this afternoon, I'm already at the heel flap on the first sock. I think I just need some instant gratification, and then I'll go back to finishing up what is already on the needles. Then again, maybe I won't :)

holly

I feel like I keep falling off the face of the blogosphere, usually for a week or so at a time. No time or energy to blog, or even read other blogs. I wish someone would have told me that when a child starts school, your life gets infinitely more busy. I thought that I'd get a little more time to myself while the Princess was at school and Zippy napped. On some days, I do get those blessed hours, but most of the time, there is something to be taken care of. Volunteering at school, dance lessons, toddler tumbling classes, and now, of all things, I've found myself in the role of a Daisy Girl Scout leader. How the hell did this happen? I can tell you that this is not where I pictured my life heading at this age, but it's too late to look back now. I love my kids to pieces, and I'm finding myself doing things that I never thought I would ever do, just for them. Funny how life does that to you, turning your expectations upside down, again and again.

Naturally, the whirlwind of activity is severely cutting into my knitting and spinning time, and I'm guessing that it will only get worse as the kids get older and involved in even more activities. I'm slowly plugging away on a couple of different spinning projects, but with five minutes here, and ten minutes there, I'm not making much headway. Same goes for knitting. A few weeks ago, I was tired of the slow progress, and decided to start a sweater that I knew wouldn't take very long, even with limited time. Let us overlook the fact that if, perhaps, I had fewer projects, I might be able to make more progress. Minor details.

Pattern: Holly from Naturally Noro by Jane Ellison
Yarn: Noro Transitions color #6, 7 skeins for smallest size
Needles: 7.0mm Denise circulars
Modifications: I added waist shaping since this sweater is knit with several inches of ease, and I didn't want to look like I was wearing a knitted sack. In hindsight, I should have just left it alone. The waist shaping really doesn't seem to make much difference. I also changed up the neck a bit. First of all, I wasn't going to knit it flat and have a big 'ol seam on my neck, so I removed the two edge stitches and simply knit it in the round. Unfortunately, when I followed the pattern as written, it was ridiculously huge. Either that, or my neck is freakishly small. It reminded me of an Elizabethan-era ruff collar, which may have been fashionable in the 16th century, but not so much in the 21st. So, I ripped. I didn't like the way the pattern was written, anyhow, having the first half of the collar knit in stockinette stitch, and then switch to ribbing for the turned-over portion. I took out about 18 stitches (seriously!) and knit the entire turtleneck in 2x2 rib.  Much better. One last simple mod was to skip the turned-up cuffs. For one thing, the sleeves weren't quite long enough for that, and besides, the cuff was far too bulky.

All in all, it's just an OK sweater. It's comfortable, that much is certain, but not entirely flattering. I sort of expected that, considering it's knit in a bulky yarn, which of course tends to make the wearer look bulky. I've wanted to knit this sweater since the book came out a few years ago, and though I'm not completely enamored with it, I do think it'll make a good weekend sweater. You know, for those cold winter afternoons where I lounge around with a cup of tea and my knitting? Ha!

A girl can dream, can't she?