More Saturday Contemplations

Back from pancakes and feeling cozy in my bed. Do I work on Mr. Sock, or perhaps the lovely Rowan sweater called Lotus. I have two baby afghans also, although, if truth be told, I really only like one of them. The one called Crowns and Cables is so pretty in it's simple cream color, but the other one, I will have to change yarns. As the Yarn Harlot wrote: "When you start with crap, that's what you end up with." (That's more or less what she said, although I am paraphrasing it.) I hope that it might be better with another yarn that's not all acrylic. Please don't be offended. Am I a yarn snob? Most likely, but I once had someone tell me that she tried to learn to knit once, but the feel of the yarn in her fingers made her "skin crawl." Really? Are you serious?

that yarn must have been some really scratchy stuff. For me, there is nothing more soothing than a beautiful merino, baby alpaca or cashmere. Am I right? Yes? I though so. Well, back to the matter at hand. The Rowan sweater. That's it. Absolutely. I'll think on the ugly baby afghan so more - maybe change to another yarn...then I'll let you know.

The New Project

I was knitting my husband a cotton vest from the "simply Sublime organic cotton book". It was getting a little tedious. Okay, if we're going to be honest here, it was BORING!!!! I mean stockinette stitch, while the basis of all knitting, can get really boring. I have to knit something like 18 inches until I get to the beginning of any interesting pattern. But because of the fact that all of my kids got something that I knitted them at Christmas, my poor husband (with a dejected pout on his face, I might add) said, "What about me? How come you haven't knitted anything for me?" So, I scoured the pattern closet and found this great beachy looking pattern for him.

While we were in California (at the beach, even) I scoped out a yarn store and ran across this new Rowan magazine no. 45. (See cover photo). Now, do you see why I attempted this? What a challenge!! Now, truth be told, I am really too stupid to realize that I'm not capable of a certain level of expertise when it comes to knitting, so I jump in with both feet (and my eyes metaphorically closed) and hope for the best. So far so good! Take a look for yourself! The best part is that even though I have crocheted, I am really NOT a crocheter. But it really wasn't that hard. Once I downloaded the difference in terms from the UK to the US, it was relatively easy. What do you think? One of the gals at my knitting group said that when I finish it, I need to wear a battery-operated neon sign stating "I MADE THIS".

So part way up the first sleeve, I started feeling guilty as the partially finished front of my husband's vest began to call out to me from deep within the recesses of the bag I had banished it to. Soon that vest began to be annoying. In fact it turned into a complete nag! Well, just to shut it up, I reached into the banishment pile and picked it up again. I am on row 85. Mindless work, but if I can at least finish it, maybe it'll finally shut up!