Recently, I read the Yarn Harlot‘s recent post on blocking the pieces before she finishes making up a sweater, and I have to admit, it gave me pause.

I started out knitting as somewhat of  a lazy knitter. I originally learned to knit from my Nanna, who didn’t spend time on things such as gauge swatches. I imagine that was because she mainly made the same things and had been making them long enough that she didn’t need one anymore, but she never taught me to do one. When I picked up knitting again on my own, I mostly wanted to play around and make things. I’m a bit impatient, and I tend to want to get to the finished product as quickly as possible.

But as I keep knitting, and begin to see the things I’ve made as crucial elements of my wardrobe, I find that I’m slowly beginning to take more of the steps in proper knitting seriously. Which explains this:

Yes, that’s a sweater body blocking away in my living room, pre-making up. As I pinned this out, a couple of things occurred to me.

1. I need more blocking mats. I have a set from Knitpicks, and they’re fantastic, but there isn’t quite enough space for a full sweater. I can block out a small shawl okay, but a large  one would be right out. It tends to take things a few days to dry here, so I can’t really block on my bed, either.

2. Cats are seriously compelled towards blocking knits. I don’t know why, but it’s ridiculous. I shoo them off, so they’ve learned to only go sleep there when I can’t see. I find the telltale fur and paw-wrinkles later. Someday, I’m gonna find one of the cats with a pin stuck in them from getting too cozy with a blocking sweater.

3. This had better be as miraculous and awesome as people make it seem. I want to be able to sew this up!

Apparently, I’ve developed an aversion to sleeves.

Not wearing them, mind you. When it comes to clothes I wear, I am adamantly pro-sleeve. This mainly comes from working in an overly air conditioned office and living in a city where the weather is both chilly and unpredictable. Tank tops, once the great love of my life during DC summers, have been relegated to a drawer, waiting for the handful of days where I can wear them.

Then I get sunburnt and vow once more to love sleeves.

So you see, I am not opposed to sleeves. In fact, I am rather fond of them. Except, it seems, when it comes to actually knitting them. See exhibit A: Mrs. Darcy.

As you can see, Mrs Darcy has been knit all the way up to the sleeves. I finished the body last night and immediately began prowling through my kntiting basket pile of projects for something to work on. That’s when I realized it.

This is the third project I have awaiting sleeves. I am systematically starting projects, knitting up the bodies, then merrily casting them aside to move onto something else. I briefly considered continuing that trend and casting on for another sweater in my queue, but after a quick pep talk, I forced myself to cast on for sleeves.

I don’t know what happened. I don’t consciously dislike sleeves, although by the end I frequently find myself wondering why it is that people insist on having two arms. But there, right in front of me, is the evidence. I do not like sleeves.

I do have options, I suppose. I could move to Florida. Or Hawaii. Those both seem like very tank top friendly places. I could cultivate a love for vests (or people who wear vests). I could consider the value in a knitted straightjacket.

Maybe I’ll just try knitting the sleeves first next time.

Well, sort of.  There’s progress, at least.

After ripping this all back and starting over again, this time remembering to start alternating rows to avoid weird colorblock affects from kettle-dyed yarn, I put this project to the side. Mostly because changing yarns every round was starting to annoy me.

But, I picked it back up, and I’m excited by how it’s coming along. I think that Princess Buttercup will be a really cute sweater when I finish, and I’m enjoying working on it. Though, I’ll probably have to take a break soon, with all the gift knitting I’ve got waiting in the wings. Sigh….turns out there is a downside to having so very many knitworthy friends.

This may come as a shock to absolutely no one but somehow, I’ve managed to cast on for yet another new project.

(What? What do you mean I already have enough on the needles? I’ve no idea what you’re talking about. ::quietly shoves stack of half knitted items under the couch:: ::whistle softly:: Hey, look! Something shiny!)

Ahem.

It’s actually my new commuter project, for now. I seem to have lost one of the needles for my commuter socks, so until I get a replacement they’re in hibernation. I was looking for something to work on–simple enough, not too overly large, and came across Mrs. Darcy! It’s been in my queue for a while, and I had some pink yarn in my stash with no project in mind–perfect match.

I’m making a few mods to the pattern. I’m knitting in the round, so that the body is done in one piece, and I lengthened the bottom a bit, as my  cropped shirt days are behind me. Mostly because I really hate feeling like the small of my back is cold all the time.

So far, it’s zipping along quickly. I can’t wait to finish.

Another straggler from 2009! Started a very, very long time ago, this is Butterfly.

Pattern: Butterfly by Jane Ellison
Yarn: Noro Kureyon

I love how this turned out! It’s a great fall sweater, with the colors and fit. It’s nice and warm, too.

The shawl collar is great, too.

Photo credit for these goes to Jenny Wilde, and these were also taken at Bass Lake. If you’re interested, you can view the whole set on Flickr.

Overall, I’d say this was a success!

The problem with jumping from project to project is that I don’t have very much in the way of interesting progress to show. I still haven’t forgotten about the 12 sweaters in a year project–although I’m a wee bit behind, technically, I only have to finish the sweaters this year. With that in mind, I hauled Sizzle out of my UFO pile.

I had a few inches left on the front, which were finished quickly, then I settled down to seam it up during the Oscars. On the principle that doing two things that always seem to take forever at once would somehow speed them both up? (Also, can we take a minute here and talk about the Oscars? There were a few great looks–Sandra Bullock, Cameron Diaz, Sandy Powell–and Meryl Streep and Helen Mirren are my role models on how to age gracefully, but what was up with the fooferah on all the skirts? It’s a dress, not sculptural art. Also, Zoe Saldana? I love you, I do, but didn’t anyone tell you that Ursula from the Little Mermaid was attacking that dress? Seriously. Take it off.)

Ahem.

I also picked up and worked the neck. It’s not overlapping quite as much as I’d thought, but is still cute. And dangerously low-cut, so that could be interesting.

And I’m still plugging along on the Atlantis sock. The problem with this is that the chart is just long enough that I can’t memorize it, or easily tell where I left off, so I can only wor on it when I have a little over an hour free, which isn’t always workable. I’m getting there, though!

I was looking through my photos and projects on Ravelry and realized I have a few finished objects I haven’t shared with you yet! First up, Brilliant Retro. This was finished in 2009, but I waited until I went on vacation at Bass Lake to get photos. Photography is courtesy of Jenny Wilde, who is awesomely fantastic. Crappy modeling is courtsey of, well, me. Who needs to get better poses.

Ahem.

Pattern: Brilliant Retro by Teva Dunham, from the Winter 2005 Interweave Knits
Yarn: Patons Brilliant in lavender, a Christmas present from my Mom
Needles: US4 (I think, it’s been a while)
Mods: Left off the snaps and am fastening with a pin instead

I love the back detail on this. And it really does fit wonderfully.

I’m king of these rocks!

It’s possible that yesterday I after work, I may have stopped by a yarn store. And I may have slipped and suddenly found myself buying yarn.

I’ve been really good this past year about buying yarn–I’ve bought yarn for specific projects and almost exclusively for gifts. Which is good, because I’ve got quite a bit of stash stored up, and any number of UFOs to be tackled.

This is no exception–the yarn and pattern are for a friend who is expecting. Her baby shower is Saturday, and I don’t know if I’ll manage to get it finished by then, but I’ll try. The yarn is Mochi Plus, and I’m loving it so far–it’s soft, machine washable, and the colors are really adding interest to a simple raglan pattern.

(And, okay, I may have also picked up a skein of Cotton Fleece in a delicious sage green to work on a vintage-style hat for myself. But you won’t tell anyone, right?)

So a while back, I blogged about one of the baby sweaters I knit, for my friend Heaven’s son, Aidan. I knit it larger, mainly because I wasn’t sure when I would finish, or what size babies actually are. So, I was excited to go to pick Heaven and Aidan up and see that he was wearing it!

It’s a baby in the baby sweater! How novel!  He’s far too young to have any sort of opinion about it, but I like to think it’s teaching him an appreciation for knitwear.

Another FO! This one is really old–but I realized I only had the ends to weave in, so I dug it up out of hibernation and finished it off. It seemed kind of silly to let it sit there for ages, when it was so close to done.

Pattern: Anthropologie inspired capelet
Yarn: Moda Dea Cache

Overall, I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out. It’s a great layering piece, and looks super adorable.