Recent knitting

I made a sweater once. Like, I actually completed a whole sweater once. No wait, make that twice. First, I knit a sweater that looked completely horrible on me, ripped the whole thing out, and knit a whole new sweater out of the same yarn. A cardigan with nice wide button bands and stuff. I finished it just after I arrived in Argentina for a semester of study abroad, but I never got buttons for it. So I never wore it. When I got back to the United States, I accidentally washed it and it felted and shrunk a little.

Also when I was in Argentina, I worked a lot on Thermal from Knitty. I got about halfway done with the second sleeve, lost my place, and haven’t gotten up the energy to find it and finish. Besides that, between then and now, I lost about 50lbs, so it’s not like my Thermal is going to fit anyway. Just one more thing to add to my lack of motivation. When I finally do finish that one, it’ll be a nice, cozy, oversized pullover for me.

Finally, attempting to remedy this whole “I’ve knitted a sweater but I don’t wear any handknit sweaters” thing, I started a top-down raglan cardigan in, oh, August or September thinking I’d have it done to wear in the winter. It’s the Incredible custom-fit raglan. Until two weeks ago, it sat around all done except for cutting the steek (eek!) and adding button bands and a collar. So close, yet so far. I think sometimes I suffer from one of the same behaviors that frustrates me about my students when I tutor: they stop and try to distract me into doing something else when they encounter something they perceive as difficult. I finally got over it, though, and googled info about cutting steeks. I decided upon the method mentioned in this post on the Knitting Harpy’s blog. I also giggled when google asked me, “Did you mean ‘how to cut steak’?”

I happily picked up and knitted the entire button band, looking forward to a weekend of actually finishing a wearable sweater. Then I realized that the buttons I’d purchased were in my sewing basket, and that I’d brought my sewing basket to school for the kids in jewelry making class to use needles. So, the finishing of the sweater wouldn’t be happening that weekend. I began a swatch for another sweater in the meantime, the Garter Yoke Cardigan. I knitted on it the whole car ride up to Duluth this weekend, then had to rip back and start over, and knitted the whole car ride home. I have yet to take pictures of my progress, but that’s the swatch. I’m excited to add some new warm items to my wardrobe!

Now it’s almost the weekend again and I’ve got two sweaters to work on. My first goal is to finish the one, then work on the other. Oh, the yarn is Cascade 220 Heathers for both sweaters.