Sunday Knitting

After the disappointment of my failed Pianissimo, I have moved on to a new sweater project. I've long been trying to find a use for some Wool Bam Boo yarn I bought when Windsor Button was closing, and failing to find the right project. This is why I don't buy yarn without knowing what it's for. Usually I choose a pattern I want to make, then find yarn for it. But when my favorite yarn store was closing and selling everything for cheap, I panicked.

Finally I found a pattern called Nympheas, a lovely short-sleeved pullover with a simple lace pattern, and cast on.

So far, so good.

Mind you, I didn't exactly do a proper swatch. I knit a swatch and measured it, but I didn't bother with the whole washing and blocking and measuring again because I did it for Pianissimo and look what that got me. Anyhow, this is a pretty quick project so far and I think I'll be able to tell soon if it's coming out close to the right size or not.

The bottom curled up edge is going to be folded under and hemmed, revealing a picot edge. The lace is a simple pattern, though the decreases have been a challenge. Usually with lace I put stitch markers between the repeats so that if I screw up it's easier to tell where it happened. It also makes it easier to figure out where to start in the pattern once I've decreased stitches at the beginning of the row. However, here the repeats are staggered and don't start at the same point in each row so I can't mark them. I already had to rip back once, but I think I've got the pattern down pretty well now.

I'm also starting to look at more new projects. We're having quite a harsh winter here in the Northeast - in fact, I'm writing this mid-blizzard - and my office has been freezing. (One of my co-workers actually crocheted a whole slew of fingerless mitts to keep at all the service desks for everyone to share.) Usually, my heavier sweaters are reserved for use at home because most buildings I go to in the winter are heated quite generously, but this year something is up with our heat and nobody seems willing to fix it. I've been getting a lot of use out of my heaviest sweaters, but I've only a few of them and they are quite casual. So I'm just going to need to make more.

I realize I won't finish any of them in time to use them this year, and things could totally be different next year, but I've never let reality get in the way of my knitting and I'm not going to start now.