Back to the Grind

Somehow in the fuzzy after holiday glow (honey and I recently came back from a little trip to Morocco), I got caught up in doing all sorts of other things and neglected the blog. Mostly those things have been errands that needed doing or other little things I've been putting off but there has also been some frantic knitting. After coming back from the little holiday I realised that there were only ten days left before we leave for Germany for Christmas. So that Christmas sweater that I started for Alex a while back and then promptly neglected thinking that I had plenty of time to finish it... yeah, um, not so much.

So, last week, I returned to the sweater. Somehow, I had deluded myself into believing that I had made great progress and it would only take a day or two to finish it. I was completely wrong. I had finished the cabled band to go around the chest and part of the first sleeve. I was in trouble. There was so much to do. There still is but I think I'm out of the woods now, if I didn't just jinx the whole thing. I am very happy that I had at least had the good sense to choose a wool that was thicker than the stuff I usually work with. Cascade 220 is definitely a favourite of mine. It's a great workhorse yarn and I really like how it feel. I also had the good sense to design something that was mostly stockinette in the round. Now, I know what you are thinking, stockinette is dull and anathema to knitterly motivation but I am already motivated. I have a fire lit under my bottom - only 9 days to the 24th. So in this case stockinette in the round is great because it is so quick to work so I'm actually getting somewhere with this project.

Now I have the first sleeve done and more than half of the second as well as most of the body to the armpits. I have two more inches before I start the ribbing so I'm doing well.

I had a brief moment of panic when I thought that I wouldn't have enough yarn (see my still unresolved brown sweater dilemma). But that passed when the skein I was using to work the body just kept on trekking well past the point I needed it to for the sake of my sanity. This increased my opinion of Cascade 220 considerably. Although it does refuse to be photographed accurately. It's not really day-glo purple. It's more of a plum.

Since this is my only Christmas knitting, I have great hopes that it will be finished. I'm even enjoying the stockinette. It's very soothing.

And now, here are some gratuitous holiday pictures.

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