Ongoing Projects

First, my intricately cabled sweater made from Blackwater Abbey Yarns using the pattern Brambleberry to make a nice, pretty, long-sleeved, warm sweater. I've knitted it for the past 3 Mountain trips, and I'd like to bring a new sweater along in February. Which means I need to finish it and sew the seams together (not necessarily an easy task, as the cables will need to match up, but it will be worth the work), and I'll probably sew the seams while listening to a book on tape to keep my mind focused.

In the meantime, I just have to say . . . I am so tired of these darn sleeves! I mean really! I'm at the point in the pattern, the sleeves, which seem to be the longest part of any project. They just keep going . . . and going . . . and going. And I'm bored with the pattern, and I just have to keep knitting and remembering to decrease on every even row, and I'm so bored!

To give you an idea, here's my previous blog picture of the sleeves from earlier this year:

Brambleberry Sleeves, about half-way finished

And as I said before, I'm knitting the sleeves at the same time so that all the increases are the same, decreases are the same, possible mistakes are the same . . . and that basically the sleeves match. All well and good. And it's not exactly mindless knitting, even though I'm only cabling on R2 since I've decided not to do the cable pattern underneath my arms because really, what would be the point? I know that the pattern has this lovely cable that floats along around the arm, but there's also a lot of bulk that way and this sweater is going to be bulky enough with the yarn being what it is. Plus there's the lack of being able to see the cables when wearing the sweater, and the yarn will be rubbing as I move my arms which will make the cables less pristine.

So, with a spring of knitting and knitting, and seemingly endless more knitting, and working on two socks for a knit-along on Ravelry, I've procrastinated these sleeves till now. They're almost done - I'm on the last decrease row before I bind off. And then my wish will be fulfilled: my sleeves will be done!!

Here they are as of last night (picture taken this morning):

One more row . . . that's all they need . . .

Which I think I can accomplish tonight while I catch up on Season 6 of "Lost" (I watched most of it but not all, and I was driving back from New Orleans during the final episode) tonight. And then there will be much rejoicing!! Hurrah!

Another piece that I'm working on is a companion to my completed Wren in the Furze and the Blue Tit, both Eva Rosenstand kits. I think I started this little bird last year, and it proved to be a great piece to bring while I was relaxing in Asheville a month ago. In fact, I stitched most of the green that is the setting for the wild rose that will be the floral portion of this design.

I haven't quite figured out what kind of bird this is. There's a lot of pink on it, but then again, it may be that the designer wanted to highlight the pink of the wild rose and so invented a bird with pink in it. If anyone knows northern European birds . . .

You know what I find interesting about this design is the amount of yellowish green that the foliage calls for. I'm not a huge fan of yellowish green - I can't wear the color, it makes me look like I'm about to become violently ill.
Regardless, it adds the shading to the foliage that a lighter green just won't capture quite as well. And you can tell the amount of the yellowish green from the colors of thread that come with the design. You can also see the several shades of pink that will become the wild rose. For this piece, I chose to stitch the bird first (cuz he's so much fun and I like to complete one motif before going on to the next), then I'll do some greenery, then finally on to the rose. Kind of brings order to the chaos.

It really was nice this summer to sit in a comfy chair, talk with friends and husband, and just sit and stitch during daylight hours (I somehow didn't need my reading glasses!). We were in the shade, I won't lie about that, but there was no pressure to finish anything, and I was able to listen to the conversation and stitch something just because it was beautiful.

OK, well, have to upload some pictures of some patterns that I forgot to upload when I entered these patterns onto my website last week. *sigh* At least that gives me time to procrastinate my sleeves!