Let There Be Light

The sun is out! Hooray:) But the driveway/street are clogged. Boo. I am inside, having rescheduled my two client visits for today.  No hearings, so I am playing it safe and staying home.  Tomorrow will be nuts, making up what I didn't do today, but that's Ohhh Kayyy. Live to fight another day. But HERE's something I could do.  It would make the DH very happy, of course he needs to work on his area, too, but his is much much more organized.  Any mess is most likely the fault of yours truly.

So the weekend of knitting is over and I had a lovely time.  Not that knitting isn't over, LOL - as if! But prior to my return to the Land of the "Normal," it was fun for a couple of reasons:(1) that I knit what I wanted to knit and (2) I started a couple of new projects about which I will tell  you below. I also cleaned up some of my ravelry stuff - left about 60 groups whose message boards I wasn't even beginning to read, reorganized the ones I stayed in and added/updated projects and patterns.

Brooklyn Tweed had a new Enablement  set of patterns out called BT Winter 14, appropriately enough.  I have a few

dozen favorites, one of which I had to cast on in this soft and smooshy 100% alpaca.  I was going to do this Frieze pattern in stripes of grey and purples, but decided to leave it just grey and give it to John.  After all, he wears scarves, he likes this one, and the Penultimate Adult Child had appropriated the Guernsey Wrap  I had knitted him from BT for her own use. I mean, really, what's a knitter to do?  After a few moments of stupidity, brought on mostly by trying to start a new project at midnight, and a few snarky comments on the ravelry discussion board, I figured it out and was on my way.  I really like the tubular cast on.  It really makes the edge look a bit more professionally done.

And even with (mumblety-mumblety) eight projects still on the needles and a host of kits packed up and ready to knit, I still felt the need to cast on Charleston Tea by Baby Cocktails (aka Thea Colman).  I used my swatching skills and desire to actually have a sweater that fits to determine that I really needed to knit this on No. 4 US needles and to follow (for the most part) the directions for a size smaller.  I guess I knit a bit more loosely than the average bear and my stitch to row gauge appears to be on the long side.  This must be the case as I am knitting this with Jojoland Melody, basically a fingering weight superwash wool and the pattern calls for DK. I also decided to keep on measuring as I go. Funny how in almost 50 years of knitting that hadn't occurred to me before, LOL!  Normally, I am not a big fan of top-down sweaters because it feels like you get the interesting bits done first, but the bulk of the knitting really is at the beginning AND because this is a (sort of) self-striping yarn, it helps to keep the stripes all in line because you're knitting the entire body in one fell swoop.  The challenge will be the sleeves, but I think I have enough yarn to start at similar places in the ball.  We shall 

see.  So far, once you have knitted a few rows of the lace pattern, it's very easy to memorize.  Even the cabling is rather simple. I haven't needed a cable needle for it. Thea Colman uses relatively simple stitch patterns to show that sometimes/usually, simple is elegant, which her designs truly are.

Other projects currently on the needles are a project for PSM;

something for the Penultimate Adult Child - the Little Wave Sweater - another one of Gudrun Johnston's little beauties from Brooklyn Tweed's Wool People Volume 6 (evidence for which, you can see, that I did swatch, although the rather bulky roving-like yarn from Lion Brand did give me pause for a half second:));

and Meg Swansen's Shawl-Collared Vest for John, though I am concerned that the skeins of Cascade Ecological Wool may not be enough yardage. Fingers crossed!

Well, time to get on with work, cleaning up and trying to get organized for the New Year.  'Bout time, don't you think?

God be with you 'til we meet again+