Well, this is certainly unexpected! This morning I started working on my Oblique cardigan again. (Heehee. Cardiganagain…heehee. *ahem* Sorry.) To what do we owe this sudden change of events? Mostly we owe it to the fact that I’ve finished the body of the Union Square Market Pullover, but I can’t cast on the sleeves because my circular needles are too long. I’ve ordered another set of size 4 tips for my interchangeables so I can knit the sleeves on two circulars. I don’t know if I have enough courage to try doing them at the same time, though. I think the short rows would throw me off.

Due to this delay, I haven’t knit anything in a week (although I did start, knit an inch, and rip up a second pair of Endpaper Mitts because I didn’t like quite like the colors I was using. I may use the remnants from the USMP to make some, though.)  This morning I was really starting to feel the itch, so I dug up my Oblique sleeve in progress. The reason I hadn’t been working on it is that I had to tink about 3 rows to fix a mistake, but I was able to complete that task on the way to work. (Kevin was driving, of course!) So now I’m making positive progress again. Maybe it’s the crispness in the air as fall approaches, but I’m really looking forward to working on this sweater again. It’ll be so nice to snuggle up in it when it’s complete.

Well, I failed to finish my Union Square Market Pullover in time for the end of the Ravelympics. What the hell was I thinking? Fingering weight yarn on size 4s? Of course I can’t knit an entire sweater with those tools in a measly 17 days!

Besides the fact that me trying to do the Sweater Sprint in those conditions was the equivalent of a couch potato hoping to win an Actual Olympic Sprint, I couldn’t knit as much as I wanted to, because I was having some sore wrist issues. I decided to ease up on my wrist-twisting activities a bit rather than risk not being able to do any of them for the rest of my life.

Despite that, I have been very diligent about continuing to plug away at it even though the Ravelympics are over! In fact, Kevin even commented that he was impressed that I was still working so hard on it! Of course, with the amount of projects I have languishing in various states of completion, I suppose it doesn’t take much to impress him.

You know, despite the fact that I’ve only written 21 entries in this blog so far, I’ve already managed to write more than one about how knitting sweaters invariably makes me wish I were knitting a sock instead. And yet what have I found myself doing for the past few weeks on Ravelry? Queuing sweaters like I’m getting paid per click of the Queue button. I think I’m slowly coming to a realization:

I am a Sweater Knitter.

Like any other knitter, once I get to the sleeves, I feel like cursing everything from my slow knitting speed to the very fact that sweaters exist in the first place. But more and more these days, even when I’m wrist-deep in the Finely Knit Sweater That Will Not End…I’ve already got yarn and patterns picked out for my next few sweaters.

I think next up will be the Kelso Lace Cardigan from Beat Knitting. I’ve actually had that in my Ravelry queue for months, but forgot about it until recently, and then realized “Hey, that’s a really cute sweater.” Then I discovered it wasn’t even available yet! So I’ve been stalking her blog, and calloo callay, it’s available! I’m thinking of hunting down some Cascade Pima Silk for it.

After that will most likely be the February Lady Sweater, which apparently was just released a few months ago, but has Taken. Over. Ravelry. Holy cow, over a thousand projects and several thousand queues, and who can blame them? It’s simple, beautiful, and dammit that should have been my Ravelympics project. I’m thinking Dream In Color Classy for this one.

And then another sweater, and another, and another…

Well, that’s what happens when I don’t write for a few weeks. Let’s see, first of all, I went to the Brewers Stitch ‘n’ Pitch on the 9th, which was a lot of fun. I’m not sure what the attendance was, but we took up the better part of sections 207, 208, and 209, so there were a lot of needle artists! Unfortunately the Brewers lost, but I came out of it with a hat, a cute little stitch marker, and some yarn to knit into a 10×10″ square for an afghan, to be auctioned off for charity. (Which reminds me, I need to drop my square off at a yarn store by tomorrow.)

I finally finished the Hedgerows, so I went to the library to pick up a few knitting books. I came out with Knitting Rules by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, The Best of Interweave Knits, and Amigurumi World (ok, technically that’s not a knitting book.)

Knitting Rules was a good read, though I think I tend to prefer more technique-geared knitting books. (I know, I’m a nerd.) I’ll definitely have to file the generic sock pattern away for future use. I’d like to knit some plain-jane stockinette socks in a beautiful stripey colorway sometime.

I got the Best of Interweave Knits mostly for the Forest Path Stole, which I still fully intend to knit, but it’s actually not going to be my next project. Actually it’s funny, I was flipping back and forth between doing the stole next or doing the gorgeous Evangeline Tunic from White Lies Designs, and I still fully intend to do them both, but another project has grown on me to the point that I MUST DO IT NEXT.

I’m talking about the Union Square Market Pullover. It’s in the Best of Interweave Knits, and at first I just sort of skimmed past it, but the more I’ve been looking at it, the more I want it. Yes, I know it’s still summer and that’s been my excuse for neglecting Oblique, but I really like that sweater, front flap, bell sleeves and all. I’m not going to modify a thing.

Perhaps serendipitously, the Ravelympics are coming up and I’ve been tossing around the idea of participating. Result: Sweater Sprint, here I come! I’ve ordered some Garnstudio DROPS Alpaca in Dark Purple for the main color, and Light Steel Blue for the contrast color. I’m so excited, I wish I didn’t have to wait until August 8th to start. The yarn should be here any day now (NordicMart has unbelievably quick service, by the way. I JUST ordered the yarn on Monday, and if I’m interpreting the tracking information correctly, it’s already in Milwaukee!) For the first time ever I’m looking forward to swatching!

Last piece of news for now, I recently signed up for the Sundara Yarns mailing list, and I just received an e-mail saying that she’ll be reopening her Seasons Yarn Club on August 1st! I’m seriously considering joining. I’ve been dying (no pun intended) to get my hands on some of her yarn for a few months now, but of course it’s so hard to get because it sells out so quickly. So this news makes me extremely excited.

I have a few more things to talk about, but I’ll save them as motivation to write more frequent entries.

Guh, I hate winding skeins into center-pull balls. Which is a shame, because so many beautiful yarns come in non-center-pull ball form. So, here I sit, winding a ball of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock so I can knit my second Hedgerow sock. (That’s right, I haven’t even gotten to the second sock yet. )

There are other ways I’d like to be spending my time, but I need to wind this ball tonight, because tomorrow, right after work, I’m going to Stitch ‘n’ Pitch! I’m very excited. I didn’t go last year, and later I found out over 600 people attended! There’s no way I’m going to miss out on the fun this year.

Still, I can’t be wasting so much time winding balls all the time. One of these days I’m going to get a swift and a ball winder. I have some gift certificates to spend on Amazon…hmmm…

Well, the good news is the Swallowtail shawl is finished. The less good news is it’s still not blocked. I ended up deciding to wear a dress that I already owned to my brother’s wedding, and unfortunately the shawl didn’t match that dress, so I didn’t bother trying to block it before the wedding. But, I do plan to do so this week, so I’ll be posting a picture or two once that’s done.

Now that the shawl is finished, I needed a new project to work on at my knitting group.  I’ve sort of been bitten by the lace bug, and one project idea I’ve really latched onto is the Sampler Stole from A Gathering of Lace. SO beautiful, but I not only need to buy yarn for it, but also the book and a size 2 circular needle. I went to The Loop over the weekend and discovered they had the book, which got me sort of excited.

BUT…the pattern calls for cobweb weight yarn, which is fine with me, but when I asked the lady (I think she’s the mother of the girl who owns the shop, the lady that teaches the classes) if they had any cobweb weight…she didn’t seem to know what the heck I was talking about.

Her: Cobweb weight?

Me: Yeah.

Her: Do you mean lace weight?

Me: It’s sort of like lace weight, but a bit lighter…

Her: I don’t know how you can get any lighter than lace weight.

And then she showed me all the laceweight yarns they had, which I’d already seen when I was shopping for the Swallowtail shawl. :-/ Meh. I could knit the thing in laceweight, but I didn’t even see anything I loved for the stole. I ended up just deciding to get some sock yarn instead and to wait until I found The Perfect Yarn before I commit to buying the book and the needles. (Besides which, I can get the book for free on Amazon with my gift certificates. Yay for credit cards with rewards.)

So for now I’m working on the Hedgerow Socks in a lovely burgundy shade of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock. Nice quick knit so far.

P.S. Anyone know where to buy Centolavaggi? It’s a cobweb weight yarn that comes in a ton of beautiful shades, but I’m having some issues finding places to buy it online.

Ok, I sort of dropped off the knitting radar for awhile due to my costume which, sadly, did not get finished in time for Anime Central. I stayed up all night before the con trying to finish, but at about 5 AM I realized it was probably best to just call it a night (so to speak) and finish my costume for a future costume contest. Disappointing, but probably the best for my sanity.

So, this Saturday is my brother’s wedding. I haven’t bought a dress yet, but I’ll probably end up going with a basic Little Black Dress affair. However, it might be prudent for me to have some sort of light wrap in case the evening of June 21st gets a little cool. To that end, I’m 6.5 rows (each containing about three-hundred-and-something stitches) away from finishing a Swallowtail Shawl, which has been a surprisingly quick knit even with all those nupps.

Nupp: k1, yo, k1, yo, k1 into one stitch, then on the wrong side of the work purl all 5 of those stitches together, creating a small bobble-type object. Yikes!  Paige was good enough to give me the tip to slip the stitches to a small DPN before attempting to purl them. Worked like a charm!

I should be finishing it in the next day or two, and I am so excited to see what happens when I block it.

Now that I’m on the Knitty mailing list, I received the information that Knitty has added their Spring surprise patterns. I’m kind of digging Tempest–if ever there were a pattern that would look perfect with some gorgeous shades of Malabrigo, that’s the one.

Why must I always find sweater patterns I want to knit? Whenever I’m elbow-deep in the arduous sweater-knitting process, I think to myself “I wish I were knitting a sock right now.” I mean, look at poor Oblique, who I’ve been neglecting for months. And here I am drooling over Tempest and itching to open up Paton’s Street Smart to make me an urban aran cardigan. And, oh yeah, IT’S GOING TO (hopefully) BE WARM SOON, so I won’t even be wearing sweaters for quite some time. *sigh*

You know, I never thought I’d be the kind of person who would ever make a doily (at least not while I’m under the age of 50.) But after seeing the doilies on this page? Oh boy. I foresee a lot of lacy discs in my future. Especially with the number of weddings (currently four) on my radar for this year. The first of these is May 24.

This does not bode well for my vow to make the Alexi Throw my Official Living Room Knitting.

P.S. No, I don’t plan on ONLY giving doilies as gifts. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Do you believe in fate? I’m not sure I do, except maybe when it comes to knitting.

I’ve been wanting to knit a shawl for some time now, but have never really found The One. I’ve seen many I sort of like, but none that call out “YOU MUST KNIT ME THIS SECOND.”

One of those that I only sort of liked was the Swallowtail Shawl. Then, the other day on Ravelry, I randomly came across the pattern again in a post about something else. I looked through some of the completed Swallowtail Shawls on Ravelry, and realized “Wow. That shawl is really beautiful.”

I found that the shawl was from a 2006 issue of Interweave Knits, and felt a little discouraged. A lot of the local yarn stores have old copies of Interweave, but I wasn’t sure if any of them would have this particular issue.

Then I got today’s Knitting Daily issue, with the results of their Reader’s Choice votes for which patterns to put into their free e-book.

Guess what one of the winners was?

I think I’d better force myself to finish Oblique before I go buying the yarn and needles for that shawl.

I’d probably write here a lot more often if I could just suck it up and feel ok about posting without pictures. So, no pictures, but I am alive.

I’m back from St. Thomas, obviously. We had a great time. It was wonderful to get away from the cold weather for awhile, and we did lots of fun things like snorkeling, parasailing, and relaxing.

I hardly did any knitting on the trip. I started the second Monkey on the plane ride down and barely had anything to show for it for the rest of the trip. We got back on March 11, and I just finished the Monkey about a week and a half ago.

I guess I haven’t really been doing much knitting in general. I’ve been working on a Princess Zelda costume for Anime Central, which is eating up quite a bit of my free time. Any knitting I have been doing has been on that Alexi Throw I’ve been working on for oh, at least a year. I’ve made it my Official Living Room Knitting. If I’m in the living room and knitting, that is what I am knitting. No exceptions. (Although not long after I made that declaration, I did exactly what my knitting friends predicted I would do and finished the toe of the Monkey sock first. In said living room. Oh well, starting NOW, the Alexi throw is the only thing I’m allowed to work on.)

In the car and at knit night, however, I’ll probably continue work on that pesky Oblique cardigan. My only regret is that I won’t finish it in time to wear it. Or maybe I will. You never know. That’s part of the charm of Wisconsin.