How many knitting days until Christmas?

Thank you, everybody, for the compliments on the shawl...and my sympathies to those who want to make it themselves, but have other projects in the way. :) The knitting itself was a hard slog a lot of the time, because there were only three motifs, and of course with the triangle shape of the shawl, it just kept taking longer and longer to get through each row, so you'd work on a motif for a loooong time before you got to the end of it. (The middle motif was particularly sloggerific.) But of course the payoff (or, as I like to crudely refer to it in private, the 'lace blocking orgasm') was spectacular.

Speaking of lace, I'm really starting to nail down the outline for the lace class that Knitters Attic has asked me to teach. I really miss teaching, so hopefully we can get enough students interested so I can do this. They've also asked me if I can do a daytime learn-to-knit class. So, very exciting stuff! Unfortunately, we don't have enough interested people to do another sock class yet, but I'm sure it will happen.

As for the socks I just finished (which have been a verrry welcome addition to my wardrobe in the past week or so as it's gotten a bit chilly lately), Em congratuled me on actually finishing a project for myself. It is indeed a rarity that I do that, and somehow it happened twice in one week this month...and one of the projects was a sweater! That never happens. And yet, the 'selfish knitting' continues...

Ljod cardigan for moi

We went to visit my MIL on Sunday, so I had to bring out something different to knit. It obviously couldn't be my MIL's Christmas cardigan or my DH's Christmas sweater, so I had to think of something else, and this project won. As a result, I have a completed back:



and a started left front:

Like, totally top

I started swatching up the Nobile in the main pattern, and it looks pretty good...although I'm thinking of going up a needle size or two and trying it again to see what I get. Carrie K asked about this yarn - it's from On Line Yarns, and is a synthetic worsted weight with sparkly copper bits. Very flashy and cool. But now that I've knit it up, I'm pondering whether it might be a bit too flashy for what I want. (Augh! The frustration!)

Mercedes at the shop pointed out another yarn for consideration: Lang Emotion. It doesn't have a sparkly ply, but it does have a sort of shiny ply that might accomplish what I'm going for. It's also scented, with a lovely, clean-smelling aroma that would probably make the whole project more cool, especially for teens, who are sort of the target audience for this pattern. It's a ribbon yarn, though, and I don't know how that's going to look. But I'm seriously considering picking up a skein to try it out.

Elizabethan Jacket for MIL

Having finished the Peacock Feathers Shawl, and being focused these days on DH's Christmas sweater (when he's not around, that is), I was inspired to keep going on another Christmas project: this one. When last we saw this project, I had finished knitting the body and sleeves and was psyching myself up to do the steeking. So this past week, I crocheted up all the steeks to anchor them prior to cutting: front opening, armscyes, front neckline, back neckline, and each sleeve. It wasn't particularly fun, but it had to be done, so I did it. Now I'm trying to work up the cojones to go ahead with the cutting.

Larry's Cabled Cashmere Pullover for DH

I have finished the front!



Exciting stuff. You would think that I would be happily starting on the first sleeve now, wouldn't you?

Alas, no.

Because I've been doing some stitch counting, and I'm pretty sure that I actually do have enough of the steel blue to do the entire rest of the sweater with - I don't actually need to use the extra balls of navy that I bought some time ago. Argh! So I don't know whether to try to return those navy balls to the shop and do a completely steel blue sweater, or to do navy stripes up the sleeves anyway because I like the look of the stripes, or do just the rim of the neckline in navy, or...what. Naturally, being so undecided has prevented me from being able to cast on for the first sleeve. I'm completely stuck.

So I throw it out to you guys again...what do you think of these new options?


OPTION #6: steel blue except for the rim of the neckline


OPTION #7: completely steel blue

(The other five options can be seen in this post.)

I'm also going to ask the shop whether they would be totally POed if I returned the navy blue balls. (They allowed me to break up a sealed package of 10 in order to buy them in the first place - does returning them make me scum?) I'm thinking that if they don't let me return them, I'll probably use them on the sweater so as not to waste them. (No idea what I'll do with the leftover steel blue yarn, but I'm willing to fall off that bridge once I come to it.)

Ravelry update

Can you tell they've installed their grownup servers?

You signed up on July 6, 2007
You are #14465 on the list.
787 people are ahead of you in line.
18923 people are behind you in line.
40% of the list has been invited so far

Only seven hundred and eighty-seven people ahead of me!!! At this rate, I'll be ravelring by Friday! I'm so excited I could burst. I'm sure that Abby, my waiting list twin (#14496), is also bouncing at the propsect. Yay!

Finally, a heartfelt (if bittersweet) congratulations to Aven, on the new job, great home (with lake) and growing baby. I don't doubt it's been frantic! But I'm delighted you're having fun. (Carrie K, no using other people's blog comment sections to chew Aven out for not updating hers. ;) Hopefully you will come back now and then to visit so I can catch you at an SnB.

Speaking of the SnB, DH's job is drying up at the end of the month (his store is closing). This is bad for us money-wise, but it does mean that I can start coming out to the downtown Knit Night again! (Of course we are hoping he gets a replacement job really quickly, but with any luck, it won't take up his Wednesday nights like this one does.)