I've hardly been knitting at all this fall. Pete has been waiting and waiting for me to finish the sweater I started for him in August, but I have been working slowly. Some of the problem is that I haven't had much knitting time. Some of the problem is that it's a plain black sweater, and knitting just doesn't get much more boring than that. I was trying to think of interesting things I could tell you about this sweater. Lifted increases make the prettiest raglan line? I used short rows for the ribbing around the hood so he could have a hood that went down to his eyebrows, as requested, without a ton of bulk at the placket? I need to play around with short row techniques before I try ribbed short rows again, because my stockinette short-row technique leaves some imperfections in the ribbing?
This post is leaving me cold, and I'm the one writing it.
Finally, though, I am done with the interminable black sweater, and moving on to greener pastures. Sort of. My oldest wants a felted laptop sleeve in dark gray. I thought it would be un-boring because he initially asked if I would knit Elvis Presley's face into it, but it turns out he was joking. (Who knew?) In terms of knitting interest a charcoal laptop sleeve is only marginally better than a black sweater, but knitting at 3 stitches to the inch rather than 5.5 means it should be fairly quick. And since his laptop has neither arms nor a head in need of coverage, I'm optimistic that I can crank it out pretty quickly. If it gets half as much use as his alien socks, it will be time well spent. He loves those socks.
But the project I'm really excited about is this one. My 11yo saw the pattern and asked me if I would please please please PLEASE make it for him. Please? I played it cool in the moment. Maybe, I said. Maybe at some point in the future I might knit that for him, when I had less stuff piled in the knitting basket and when I was feeling more inclined to pay $6 for a knitting pattern. Also, did he notice the "EXTREME KNITTING" designation?
I turned right around and bought that pattern, and I am itching to cast it on for a little Christmas surprise. The EXTREME KNITTING label only fuels my enthusiasm. Bring the extreme, I say!
I need to clear off my size 4 DPNs to get started, though, and they are currently occupied by the beginnings of a quilt. At the end of the summer I started two use-up-leftovers projects: a Beekeeper's Quilt (intended as a repository for all of my sock yarn ends), and a pair of colorwork nether garments (ditto, for worsted).
Also on the needles: a laceweight shawl that requires me to tackle nupps for the first time, a fingering scarf that needs to be ripped out and restarted with a generous garter border, and a second sock that could really be finished up in a trice if I just sat down and did it. And two adult sweaters, both in the very beginning stages.
Whenever my WIP count reaches the high single digits, I start to get a little twitchy. Five or six is the sweet spot for me, I think. Time to get some stuff finished up.
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