Ravelympics 2008

Well, I'm all signed up for the Ravelympics. I signed up for too much, though.

My main event is the Sweater Sprint. I aim to knit this ENTIRE SWEATER in 17 DAYS! I know that's normal for some people, but I'm the procrastinating queen. I have never finished a sweater that fast. In fact, I've only finished what, 3 sweaters ever? That's pretty sad, in the number of years I've been knitting.

Well, I may have knitted a ton of other stuff meanwhile. But still!

It's all in stockinette, on what will probably be size 9 needles. So not exactly a slow slog that way either. I've been knitting my rose cardigan on 5s, if that helps with perspective. And that should totally be done already, but whatevs! Who's counting.

I also have this ridiculous idea that I can finish some UFOs while making this ENTIRE sweater. Like this.


And this (1/3 done)


And a few more.

Crazy? Yes. But darn if I'm not ready to try. If nothing else, I have to knit the sweater. It's my last no kidding for frikkin real I promise commissioned knit. And I said I'd have it to her by September. Funny thing about September. That's next month!

You know what that means? I'm going to be 28. I sure ought to have finished at least 4 sweaters by then. If I can finish the rose cardigan, it will be five!

So what did I do meanwhile, while pondering finishing up UFOs and knitting this I swear it last commissioned knit? I might have bought the yarn for this. Or you can see the pattern here. Or you know, I might go crazy and chart my own. Yummy.

Shawl fantastico

I have a Seraphim. I am in love with her. In fact, I am wearing her to work, and enjoying every moment of her blissful warmth. She is made of Schaefer Anne, and the yarn is just perfect. It's variegated, but subtly enough for even the lacy bits of the pattern. And the colors are just perfect- I feel like I'm swimming in a cool pond!



Lace details:


All bundled up:


And here is the Woven Gems Prime Alpaca I purchased at the Shenandoah Valley Fiber Fest- I keep petting it, because it feels like heaven.


I also promised photos of the Chullo hat I'm knitting to give away shortly. This photo is from early in the evening yesterday, before I finished knitting the earflaps. All that's left is to do the last round around with green, and weave in the excessive amount of ends. It's a little deceptive in the photo- most of the top actually sits above the head, and flops back. It's a really cute pattern. I may not have enough teal for the braid up top and the ties, but I did at least have enough for the hat itself.


I ordered some magnificent yarn off Ravelry- not only was in insanely cheap (less than half price?), it is quite possibly my favorite yarn ever. Besides Schaefer Anne. It's the perfect dusty rose, and I think Cashsoft DK may be the nicest fiber I've touched. I'm using it for that baby sampler afghan- I stopped working on it only because I'm lazy, though the yarn is perfect!


Speaking of babies, my cousin is going to be induced tomorrow. How wonderful! If it's a girl, I know what I'm sending to her... if it's a boy, I'll have to be more creative. Either way, there's also another project in my queue, though it's not a knitting project.


I am going to be one half of a very creative team- making one spiffy neo-Victorian steampunk suit. I think I'm going to start out by sewing up the shirt, since that should be relatively straight-forward while I learn how to use my new (to me) sewing machine. Once I have my stitching back in order, I will take on the tailoring required for the vest, and finally the frock coat.

I have a significant number of knitting UFOs, and two fair isle sweaters I want to start. Somehow, I'm not ready to knit on any of them. I think I need to dig into my knitting bag tonight after SSK, to determine what I should be working on. Or I could give in and swatch Autumn Rose. I think I say that twice a day, every day... In the meantime, I have the Super Secret Holiday gift in my bag, half completed, and I think that should take me through the next few days.

Knitalong Happy

Seraphim continues apace- I've got 61 stitches in each of the stockinette pattern sections, which means I have only another trillion increase rows to go. Trillion may be putting it strongly. I'm enjoying it quite a bit, for essentially knitting stockinette fabric for most of the shawl.

Brian's sweater is so close to finishing I can taste it- I completed the sleeves, picked up and knit the neck, and sewed the sleeves to the body. I even wove in a bunch of ends. All that's left is to seam up the sleeves and the sides of the sweater, but that is apparently proving to be too much for me. After all, just the two small seams and the collar took me 3.5 hours. Did I mention this is a huge sweater? Maybe I'll go home and finish it tonight.

Or I could go to a new knitting group and work on Seraphim. Hmm!

In other knitty news, I have joined my third knitalong. MS3 is essentially over, though I have 3 more charts to complete before my shawl is actually done. Clue 4 has two charts, and then I have to do the inset piece to bind my two symmetrical sides together. My Autumn Rose fair isle can't get going until the yarn gets off backorder- presumably the 25th, and they will ship it after that. It's quite likely that the yarn will not arrive before I head out on vacation, so I will not be starting that until at least the second week of October. Then yesterday (care of Ravelry), I discovered the Anne of Green Gables Read and Knit Along and I'm in love. I truly adore LM Montgomery. I have all but the most recently printed couple of books- all lined up in a row of my bookshelf. The goal of the knitalong is to read two books a month, October through January. And knit something Anne-related while doing so. I'm suspecting I would like to knit a counterpane or a tablecloth. This is one nice resource for vintage patterns: the Antique Pattern Library. I could also just make some military-issue WWI era socks, but that's not the challenge I'm hoping for. I need to bear in mind that November is inside the KAL months, however, and I might not be knitting or reading a thing that month. If I decide to write another novel. I will probably try to read one of the books for that month in October and December, respectively. No worries.