Whew

The Flying Geese gansey is done. It fits. It looks great on my husband.

Almost a year for this one. It is not a hard or tedious pattern. I may even make it again.

I have started on a wild one. My daughter has become vegan. Thus all the wool, alpaca, silk, and mixes of these are off limits to her sensibility. I'm still her mother, and I'm still a knitter, and I still melt when I hear "Mommy, will you knit a sweater for me???"

She wanted cables or color. This tells me I need an acrylic or microfiber blend. Rowan designers may be able to pull off fair isle or cables with 100% cotton, but I'm not going there.

I'm not pleased with the selection or price of yarn here in Paris. Since we were planning a long weekend in Germany, I used Ravelry to look up a yarn store.

We ended up in the Maschenkunst store. Wonderful experience, and a very nice shop. We didn't get off the the best start, as their delicious selection of yarn was mostly 100% natural stuff, and that stuff wasn't vegan. It was January, so their summer cotton stock had not come in. So selection for vegan girl was limited. We all fussed around, and finally found some selection we could work with.

Now, what to do with it?

Daughter and I sat on their comfy sofa to look at some books, and for further negociations. We were offered coffee - very sweet. Eventually we were shown the new Isenberger book and daughter loved the Somer i Toyko design. Well, that's a start - we can change out the colors, adjust the gauge. We agreed that she would like it, and I would be happy knitting it.

So, the swatch is above, most of the calculations have been worked, and I've got about half of a sleeve on the needles.

Happy New Year.


I finally got Flying Geese put back together, and on his way again. What a pain! I should have just ripped down to the gusset, and added length that way. Even better, I should get it into my head the my husband of 21 years has a long torso, and I always need to add 2" to the body of his sweaters.

Review of 2008
* I significantly reduced my stash. I sold a lot before moving, and used stash yarn for all my projects.
* I finished four and 2/3 sweaters. The goal was 6.

Goals for 2009 -
*Only stash yarn
*Finish Flying Geese plus 5 more sweaters
*Blog at least twice per month

A longer than normal summer absence. I suppose moving to France has something to do with it. I do believe that my knitting goals are pretty well blown. Not a problem; knitting has been way down the list of priorities for the past few months.

The climate here favors wearing my wool sweaters way more than Houston. I suppose that is a big DUH. I've had Fern on most days this week. My other favorite is the Starz sweater.

Even after three months, I'm still settling in. I still need to find places for some of the things we brought with us, and re-arrange what I've already put away. Also, lamps - our little house is dark. Thus, not a lot of time, or even interest in knitting, and with no knitting, what is the point of a knitting blog?

Well, I have finished this sweater for my sister in law. As you can tell, it is a companion sweater to the green one I made earlier in the year. I hope they enjoy them.

I have found the flying geese sweater, and will try to get that together and finish it next.

Where's Swatchy?
Has it been the normal summer slump?
NO!
Swatchy is moving to France.

So, knitters with large stash, consider this. Imagine that you will be leaving for at least two years, but perhaps quite a bit longer. Then look at your stash. You have three months to prepare your entire house, and you work a normal 40 hour plus week, and have a daughter to care for.

What do you do?

This is what I did.

First, I stewed, and cleaned a different closet.

Second
I took all the yarn that I didn't love. I bought a lot off of EBay for 50 cents per ounce or so, plus shipping. Since I was a motivated seller, I decided that the 50cents per ounce mark was good. I was lucky enough to be able to attend an annual knitting guild yarn swap. I also volunteered at a workshop and sold more at lunchtime there as well. A Ravelry lady bought some too. Two or three large bins gone, and I made more than $100. (ummm, you do the math on the volumes) Great!

Message here is that local knitting guilds and clubs rock. I quit going because it conflicted with Girl Scouts. When the troop quit, I never got back to going. I should have.

Third, I thought about my basic stash problem. I don't use this because it goes with that, and there is enough of that for a whole sweater.

I bought a lot of those canvas/plastic sweater bags at The Container Store. I took all my yarn where I had enough for a large cable sweater, and put two sweaters worth of yarn in each bag. I'm liking to do two color Norwegian type sweaters these days, so then I took two color combinations and stored them the same way. And so on. I ended up with 18 bags. Now, since I knit about six sweaters in a normal year, that amounts to six years of knitting.

Message here - I let my purchasing get way out of control. Hence, the yarn diet. Looks like a six year yarn diet.

There was still more yarn. Nice yarn. Some of my favorite kinds - the vintage Wool/Shetland wool. Hmmm. We decided to keep our house, and to have an "owners closet" in that house. So that is where it went.

Then, what to do with the books and patterns? When I was pulling yarn for the bags, I also noted ideas for patterns when I had them. I pulled all the books and magazines where those patterns lived, and a few more that I especially liked. They also went into the shipment. Over the years, I have marked a number of magazines up with sticky notes where I really liked a pattern, so it was pretty quick to find those pages again. The rest went to storage.

Message, Sticky notes in magazines are handy.

Fourth, or maybe some time in the middle, I had to think about what I was bringing with me. There will be six to eight weeks from the time all is packed until it shows up on the other side of the pond. I took the three project that I have in progress, and one more. So, one of my suitcases is about half full of yarn.

I haven't looked at my projects for about five weeks because I have the rest of the house to work too. But, now it's done. The packers came and packed. The container was filled, and is at a warehouse, getting re-arranged for shipping and storage. The ship sails on July 9th.

I'm tired.

Dang

It's too short. Not a little short - like - I can block it longer short, but really too short. Three pattern repeats of the flying geese patterns too short. A whole skein and a half short.

My husband has a long torso; I know that. I had to snip and lengthen the Hardangervidda. The Starmore sweaters are usually sized really large, and I figured the measurements would be ok. Just to be safe, I pulled out Hardangervidda. My husband LOVES this sweater now. I put the geese on top, and this is what I saw.

I'm glad I did a compare before adding the sleeves. I will have yarn of the same dye lot to use.

After pouting, I decided to snip between the ribbing and the beginning of the pattern. Pick up the ribbing, re-do the body increase, then do three pattern repeats. Then, use my new awesome grafting skills to stick it back together. I have a lot of other work to do at home, so I can't dedicate myself to fixing this, so I have a three week plan as a goal.

Week one - snip and pick up

Week two - knit the three pattern repeats

Week three - graft

So, by the weekend of June 7th, I should be able to start on the sleeves.

Flying Geese has a front and a back now. Measurements seem to be what I was going for. I think it will block a bit larger, and that is fine.

Now for the anxious part. I started with 16 skeins, and I have used 11 1/2 for the body. That leaves 4 1/2 for the sleeves and collar. This seems like not quite enough.

This color is not discontinued, so it is possible to get some more, but probably not the same dye lot. There is a pattern break about the elbow of the sleeve, where I could add on in a different dye lot, and if there is a slight color change, I don't think it would take away from the work.

We shall see.

Happy 5 year birthday, blog.

The front is finished on the Flying Geese gansey. It was politely admired this weekend while I was at camp.

I started teaching my very first basic sailing class this weekend, and my students all did very well. We had great weather, and all that they need to do is test off their skills next weekend.

Learning to sail is pretty hard. If the weather is bad, the students don't get enough time on the water to practice. This weekend, we had to start late on Sunday because of too much wind, and Saturday, cut the session short because the wind and current conspired to sweep our beginners all over the bay. So, all who could sail in were sent to the beach, and the motorboats rounded all the rest up. We had a damaged spar set, and a few freaked out sailors, but all were safe, and the weather was better in the afternoon, so we sailed again, and it was great.

I was leaving feeling very satisfied. In the parking lot there was a mother yelling at her daughter. The girl looked to be pretty young; probably just old enough to take the class. The girl apparently needed to come back next weekend to finish testing out, and to get her card. This is very normal, and the fact that she was invited to come back indicates that she was one of the ones that just ran out of time. The ones who don't seem to be intereested are simply allowed to leave. This mom was screaming about how many times she had to drive to camp, and how this girl should have tried harder. She ended up with how she was tired of wasting her time on this girl, and no more camp, and no more Girl Scouts.

I did nothing. I've had enough parenting challenges to perhaps be over sensitive to people who know nothing about my circumstances to butt in. However, I don't know if I could ever tell my child that I was wasting my time on her. It made me very sad.

The geese have flown, and all that is left is a lot of knits and purls. I started this about a month ago, as a vacation project. I was almost done with that big green fair isle, and I didn't want to pack a huge sweater that I wasn't going to wear to Europe and back. I didn't have the patience to put together a few baby projects. So, I grabbed some skeins of nature spun, and got on the airplane.

Upon returning, the sweater didn't want to be photographed on the circular needle. She didn't think being all bunched up was flattering. I suppose I had to agree, as I have waited until now to take her picture.

This pattern really looks nice, and isn't all that difficult. I really like the way the bobbles nestle into the little cable. Maybe I'll post a close up when my camera battery is recharged.

Big Fair Isle is done.

Just in time too. While we are enjoying wonderful weather in Houston this week, we have had some episodes of summer heat and humidity.

Last year, I dumped my "Fern" project until it cooled down because I just couldn't bear to work with the wool.

gingbox
Originally uploaded by SwatchyKnitter

I suppose if you have to think inside of a box, this is a way to do it.

Ah, it is April now. First quarter is finished. So many reports to do. Let's do a fun one

STASH USAGE Report

Charlie Brown Sweater - Complete
Florida Baby Sweater - Complete
Green Fair Isle - 80%
Brilla pullover - 50%
New Gansey - 30%

Gold Wool/Shetland Wool - 8 skeins; 16 oz
Black Debut - 1.5 skeins; 2.8 oz
Avocado worsted - 2.5 skeins; 10 oz
Pine Green worsted - 3 skeins; 12 oz
Brilla print - 5 skeins; 8.8 oz
Nature Spun sport - 5 skeins; 8.8 oz
Cotton odd balls - 5oz

Q1 Total
1 adult sweater
1.6 unfinished sweater equivalents
1 baby sweater
25 skeins of various weight.
63.4 oz, or almost 4 pounds.

That feels like success.

Look Ma, One Arm

onearm
Originally uploaded by SwatchyKnitter

Back from vacation, and there is a new project started. More on that, later. For now, we see that this fair isle is about ten days from being finished.

I think I missed a week of blogging. Did you miss me? Proabably not; I can't tell that anyone reads this but me.

Well, Mr. Brown is done. Good thing too. I'm leaving Wednesday for a two week trip, and I think it would be nice to send it off before I leave. Poor cousin Joe has been waiting since Christmas. I hope he enjoys it.

Some off schedule knitting. I was playing with my stash, and decided that these colors of cotton/Acrylic yarn made me happy. Strange, as I was tossing the skeins into the "garage sale" pile. There was an oddball of orange/pink cotton chenille stuff that I aquired during my "ebay problem" days. It looked like it would work well, so I used it for the collar, cuffs, and button band. I'm happy with how it turned out, and I hope the Floriday baby's new mom will enjoy it as well.

Most of the knitting for this pretty was done on the way to and from a Backpacking trip. It's great to go backpacking with teen age girls.

I'm off on vacation later this week for ten days. whooo hooo.

Projects in need of discipline.

Charlie has been collared, but needs to be firmly blocked.

Fair Isle needs to be collared.

When last we saw this guy, it was just two pattern repeats up the body. I'm just past double that, and as you can see the armhole has been set. This picuture also shows the side seam design that I've used. This design will be picked up and continued under the arm, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Starting to look like a Charlie Brown Sweater. This would be the back, and I'm about two inches from shoulder shaping today. I expect to be done with this piece by the weekend.

Everything is smack dab on gauge and looking good.

This week more of the same, so no pictures.

Two sleeves for Charlie Brown. I spent some quality time with some graph paper, and worked out the zig zag. Hope I don't lose my paper.

Three and a half repeats on the fair isle, and set the sleeve steeks.

I did start a spreadsheet for stash use this year. 29.8 ounces.

Lots of knitting this week.

For the "Charlie Brown" sweater, I have a sleeve. I'm trying to work on this one during conference calls and in waiting rooms. The sleeves, and most of the body are pretty dull; plain stockinette, with a very simple zigzag. I make myself work on it. I have a business trip next week, and plan to take only this project.

Now, for the fun. Isn't she pretty? I just love all over fair isle patterns, and this one reminds me ceramic tiles. This is two full pattern repeats. I want to end the shoulder at one of the two "mirror image" inflection points in the pattern so I can do the "in pattern pick up" that Meg Swanson discusses in her "Knitting" book. ( this would be the Russian Prime project text)

From a stash busting perspective, by the way, I used up 12 ounces of yarn just this week. Wow!

Big picture day.

First things first. I became so enamored of Ravelry, linking to see other projects, setting up my queue, wandering through the forums, joining groups, and looking at more projects that I quite forgot to knit for a time. Well, knit, or do much of anything else.

This is progress on a Brilla print "Graduated Ribs" top out of the "Knitters Stash" book. I threw the yarn and the pattern into my travel bag for Christmas, in case I needed something to start, and especially if I couldn't stand making another mohair scarf at the time. I did an arm and a half. Since then, the other arm has been done, and I'm on the third ball up the body. That's about 7 inches. I'm going to set it aside for a while, because I really want to knock out some wool projects. I've found that once it starts warming up here in Houston, I can't stand to work on wool, so I'll pick this one up then. See you later, Brilla.

Now, here is a boring one. I decided to offer a hand knit sweater as my gift to the family gift swat. The fellow who won the gift wants a "Charlie Brown" sweater. Plain, crew neck, yellow with a black zig zag. lucky for me, I've got the right yellow, and some black that is the same gauge in my stash. I'm using the "Grand Plan Pullover" directions from an elderly Interweave Knits so I don't have to calculate a set in sleeve from scratch. I did an intarsia swatch, but still have to math out the zig zag.

Now, the one I'm currently thrilled with. It's a little fair isle from a very old Vogue Knitting magazine. Holiday 1987. I'm using some vintage Marietta Knitting Worsted from the Caron company for the light green, and some no name wool for the dark. Both procured from eBAY, both stash. I love watching these Nordic patterns grow out of the ribbing.

Phew, nice for Fern to be done. I was putting off a lot of stuff, because I thought I should get her finished first. So, a lot feels backed up.

A while ago, I changed my template, to make it more compliant with standard blotter. I had really hacked up a template to my liking, but I wasn't keeping it up because I'm interested in doing a knitting blog, not proving that I can hack HTML.

I'm adding sidebar stuff as I go along, not even trying to replace what I had. I put the rings back in, and I think they work properly. I left out the Knit along stuff, as I've completed the ones I signed up for. I will be contributing to the Vogue 25th anniversary KAL this year.

I put my year goals up top. Pretty much like last year, knit from stash, try to do six sweaters. Different than last year, in that I have actually planned most of the sweaters I want to do, and have pulled and boxed the stash for them. I also learned from looking at my blog activity that I just can't bear to work with wool in the summer. So, I've set aside some cotton and cotton/rayon projects just for summer.

I'm loving Ralvery, by the way, as their project queue seems to make the planning even more real than the boxed yarn with their assignments.

The stash has been quite a lump to deal with. I found I would dig around, and not use particular yarn because there was either too much ( enough to make an entire sweater, or enough for half a two color sweater ), or not enough, or I was saving that yarn for this project or that. Talk about a Goldilocks syndrome.

I have a lot of "Vintage" yarn where the ball bands are either absent, or do not indicate yardage. This causes a lot of anxiety when planning a project. Keeping records last year has helped a lot. I have been weighing finished sweaters, and now have a much better grip on how much I need to do a particular sized piece.

My head had some projects that got into my head, that I can't stop fussing over. This is where I started with my planning exercise. I wanted to make a set of "his and her" sweaters for BIL and SIL. They wear that kind of stuff; I've seen their whole family decked out in matching Aloha shirts on vacation. So I did a lot of digging, and fussing, and finally decided on what I wanted to do for that project. Hence, the Fair Isle pullovers. His will be light avocado and pine green. Hers will be purple and the same light avocado. I'm making some modifications in order to make the pattern suit the gauge, and noting that.

I also have a baby sweater still on my mind. This is one left from my last year baby mania. The girl is born, but I'm not feeling a rush. I like to make a 1 year old size; newborn sizes are too small after a short three months. I got these GREAT vintage fish buttons while on vacation, so, I'm thinking of making this Dale of Norway model, but doing a fish motif in the yoke band instead of the leaf motif. I like the way the hem edge is wavy; I think it will go with the fish motif well. I have to go into the stash and find the colors. I know I have the pink, and yellows and pretty sure I have good choices minty green. Should be cute.

Houston, you can get to cold winter now. I have a new sweater.

I was planning on stating my goals for 2008, but I'm sort of bushed now.

Maybe tomorrow.

Happy New Year.

I've been back from holiday since Saturday evening, but still getting my life sorted out. We had a nice driving and visiting and sight seeing vacation that lasted two and a half weeks. I really disconnected from my normal day to day, which is what vacations are all about. I didn't do too much evaluating of 2007 or planning for 2008 either. Just saw a lot of people; did some hiking and sight seeing.

I gave every one of the brioche scarfs I had knit this year away.

Husband needed to start on a business trip, so I had to drive at the beginning. This made me a bit grumpy, as I was planning on finishing Fern and the Dale baby sweater on the trip out. I did finish the baby sweater completely, and all the knitting on Fern. Still have to sew it up.

So, Knitting Evaluation from 2007

Goals were

1) use only stash

2) knit 6 adult sweaters

Results

1) purchased some stash on Mothers day, but it was all used up by the end of the year. Count as a success

2) I will count Fern as a 2007 sweater, and make the count 5 sweaters.

2a) A Cardigan for Arwen - 26 oz

2b) Elegant Diagonals - 16 oz

2c) Hardangervidda - 32 oz

2d) Brilla coverup - 17 oz

2e) Fern - 20 oz

ALSO

13 fluffy brioche scarves average 2.5 oz per scarf = 32.5 oz

5 baby sweaters 28 oz total

If the goal was to use stash to make 6 sweaters, I'd say that the scarfs and baby sweaters count towards that goal, and the goal was well met.

Total ounces removed from stash 171, if I added correctly.

That's over 10 pounds!!

Once that baby sweater body was done, I didn't want to look at it for a few days. So, I got back and busy with Fern. She now has a front, all done. All that is left is the back, and sewing up, as the sleeves were knit this spring.

Look at the sexy close up. I know you want it.

I want to get that baby sweater done before leaving for Christmas Holiday, so I started the sleeve on Sunday. Monday afternoon, I present the one armed baby sweater. Moving along nicely, yes?

I got into Ravelry this weekend. My that is a nice interface. One can get quite involved in sorting, and queuing, and stashing online. Almost forgot that it was all about the knitting. I think I have over a year of projects in my queue now. I considered loading up past projects, but I think I'll keep them here, and spend the time knitting.

Over the weekend, this sweater exploded into color, and I just couldn't stop. Last night I finished sewing up the shoulders, put on the collar, and cleaned up the ends that were there.

Yes, most of the yoke was three colors, and I'm not so very good at handling three colors. I can do the color in each hand thing all day, but three was slow. I doubt I'd try this for an adult size any time soon.

After the baby sweater marathon, counted what I needed to do. 5 sweaters made, one more to do before we leave for Christmas. The idea of digging into another baby sweater gave me the heaves. So, I picked up Fern again.

She needed a few more inches to get to the arm opening, and I accomplished that and a bit more. Since half the stitches are now on a piece of waste yarn, she can stretch out for her pictures. I think she's quite pretty.

I also finished another scarf. This is for a friend in New Jersey, and will be mailed today, probably.

Wednesday night, I finally got interested in starting that last for 2007 baby sweater. I'm doing the cover sweater from the Dale of Norway book 81. It has the lovely name of "Baby Wo0l 8106" I'm using Nature Spun Sport, and getting a gauge of 26 st/4 inch instead of the 32 called for. No problem, I found that the stitch count for the three month model will result in a diameter that will be about right for the intended baby. I need to calculate the row count to make sure the armhole works out. I have a ruler, and I know how to use it, so no problems.

I changed the colors; using "Bit of Blue" for the main color, "Sapphire" for the darker contrast color, and "Orange Crush" for the second contrast color. The Orange is on the red side and the Sapphire is on the Purple side. There is also a fourth color used in the yoke. I'm going back and forth on that one.

The pattern does have a number of rounds with THREE colors, which I find tricky.

Another baby sweater out the door. The picture is a bit sideways; not sure why.

Not sure what got into me, but I really worked to get this done in a week. No compelling reason, other than to mark it off my so called list.

So, now I'm not feeling very ambitious about knitting right now.

Something I did a few weeks ago was to work through my stash, and bag up a number of projects. I set aside yarn and sweaters for two more "boy" sweaters. I think I'll rely on Dale of Norway to provide the pattern inspiration, rather than designing my own this time.

I do have a scarf on the needles, and Fern in the basket, so no need to start on anything new quite yet.

She looks so much nicer with buttons and her ends tucked in, don't you think?

I'm moving quickly on the next little boy sweater. This is for my daughter's geometry teacher. How do you like the 3-D cubes in the pattern? Just knit purl, but seems cool for a geometry teacher. I"m hoping to finish this week.

Almost done with some projects. This scarf just needs to have the ends worked in, then it's off to my friend Kathy in Seattle. She saw one like it that was being gifted, and put in an order. I'm a sucker for people admiring my work, so she gets a scarf.

When my daughter was a toddler, and I was travelling to Seattle a lot, she wanted to know who Addle was, since I visited this person so often.

A baby sweater to go to Atlanta. I finished the blue linen stitch one, and gave it away before taking a picture. The only way it will get documented here is if dad puts it on baby, and snap a picture.

I did a baby count, and came up with EIGHT. I guess I missed one, and I learned that another was landing last week. So, with this one, that's four down, and another four to go.

And another scarf for Carol in New Jersey. Carol helps me with a lot of projects, and New Jersey is nasty in the winter, so I hope she enjoys it.

Poor Fern. With Holiday Gifting scarfs, and baby sweaters, she is sad, and packed away in a zip lock. I keep thinking this week I'll do an eight row repeat, but it hasn't happened for a few weeks now. Maybe this week?

Well, the blog was slammed by some spam comment generator over the weekend. I thought I was suddenly popular. Silly me, I hardly get comments here, why should that change? I deleted the stupid stuff, and have added the little box with the funny letters to prevent the spam engines from tagging without effort.

I've been working on baby sweaters the past week. They've been showing up, and I intended to get them taken care of by the end of the year. I counted the babies I felt commited to make a sweater for, and the number was six.

Whoa.

These mitered jackets are for a set of twins that were born almost a year ago. They were premature, but now doing fine. My husband asked me to make these for his friend at work. This is the first time he has asked me to knit something for someone. They will get these baby surprise jackets as soon as I get the buttons.

Two newborns at the Atlanta Office, a boy and a girl. I've got the sleeves and edgings for this little blue jacket left to do. I'm using the last of the "Mothers Day" yarn binge and some very light blue e-bay yarn in a slip stitch pattern for the bottom of the body. This is a close up of the slip stitch pattern.

I'll do just the mohair mix for the top and arms. The edgings will be garter stitch in the light blue like the hem. Should be done soon as well.

The next will be for the girl. I go to Atlanta next week, so I hope I can get them both done and ready to give away for that trip.

Working on this second baby sweater. I had to take the needle out of it yesterday due to a unintentional short row. So, I laid her out for a photograph. This is the Zimmerman "baby surprise" idea, with a modification that has probably been done before.

The basic "surprise" you make the back section from the shoulder to the armpits. Then you make sleeves. Then you knit the second half of one sleeve, the back, then half of the second sleeve together. Then knit back and forth, increasing two stiches at the join in order to make the miter.

My modification is shown here.
I accomplish it by knitting the two sleeves, and make sure that I have an even number or stitches.

I slip the stiches for the back half of one sleeve onto the needle and knit to where the back should begin. Then I use a temporary cast on to add the back stiches, then I knit across half the second sleeve. I then knit back and forth, decreasing two stiches at the back/arm join. It makes this sweet mitered back section, and saves me a bit of seaming.

Nifty?
I'm sure this has been done before.

Well, the needles are working again.

I'm here on a business trip, all my mobility appliances are quietly charging. I used my new Blackberry to photograph miss Fern, who has made it off the chair and is traveling with me. I was able to complete about 18 rows on this trip, and will probably knit on her on the flight home. She's just about 13 inches now, so well on the way to the armholes.

Cast aside for now is a baby surprise that is most of the way done. I'd like to finish that one soon. I'm traveling again next week, so maybe Fern will feel too big to go out, and the baby sweaters will get their time.

Hey, I finished it.

Other than me being about 20 pounds too heavy, it's great. Maybe next summer I will wear it around.

And I dragged Fern off the chair, and took her on a business trip. She had been sharing that chair with the dog, and was a bit hairy, but other that that in fine shape. A few minutes to figure out what row we were on, away we went.

Eleven inches on the body. Maybe a picture later.

It's the middle of October, and cooling down enough that I may be able to touch wool again. I wish I could say I have been busy and productive over the summer. Just hasn't happened.

Let's review:

I had a goal to purchase no new yarn, and to make six adult sized stash sweaters this year.

I amended that because of a mothers day yarn purchase, that all the new yarn must be used as well as the six sweaters.

I'm pleased to say that most of the mothers day yarn is gone. The last bits are going into baby sweaters. Here's one that is done, and sleeves are made for the next one.

There are two balls of a mohair mix waiting to become yet another baby sweater. There have been quite a few born recently - mostly boys.

I was also working on a mesh top based on a pattern from the summer Vogue knitting. The parts are done the edging is done, it's a matter of sewing it together and cleaning up the ends.

This would be adult sweater number 4.

Fern is sweater number 5, and I must signed up for the Fall Cables KAL to motivate me to get her back out and done.

Perhaps over the weekend, I can get the mesh top completed, and Fern back in the mix.