I Will Get There From Here

Chicago has been a good place to be a knitter this weekend. Loopy hosted Anne Shayne for their grand re-location party. YarnCon also included a Mason-Dixon book-signing event. I am probably the only knitter in Chicago who missed both. (I do love my son. And his science fair project. I really do. Planting things so we can maim them with household chemicals is fun and way worth missing Anne Shayne. Twice. And not getting both my Mason-Dixon books signed. Twice. Really.) You'll just have to read about it elsewhere. Good thing I have other things to write about.

You know, I really like knitting. I like reading about it. I like planning it. I like blogging about it, setting out whatever I'm thinking as I form stitches and rows. I spend way more time day-dreaming about it than I probably should (fantasizing about a sweater while navigating I-55 does not, perhaps, make me the driver you want to be around). I like the act itself.

Therein lies the rub. Once in a while, not unreasonably often, I like to have some actual knitting completed. On some few rare occasions, I like to write about a knitting success. This experience has proved elusive in the past few months. I realize that some of that is because we had a lot of life happening here at Chez WoolGathering. I have, however, been attempting to take Elizabeth Zimmermann's advice to "knit on."

Meet my latest attempt. This is the Orphan's for Orphan's sweater from Knitting for Peace, Take 2. The heavier yarn is supposed to make it a) warmer and b) larger without having to knit significantly more stitches.

The cable up the middle front is the one from the pattern for the sleeve variation (and I'm glad to know before I start that in this yarn -- Malabrigo Chunky Merino -- that cable is going to be way too big for any sleeve). This needs to be done soonest, because the sweaters for the afghans for Afghans youth campaign have to reach California by this coming Tuesday. At the moment, this seems unduly optimistic. The poor thing isn't even half-way there. Even if I do finish the actual knitting, I'm thinking this yarn is so heavy, blocking it could take days. Memo to self - do not overwhelm the stash with additional purchases of bulky yarn.

This sweater is supposed to serve a further purpose. It is supposed to steel my nerves renew and refresh me enough to try that short-row thing with the Blessingway triangle. I've decided -- since none of you has actually howled, "No-o-o-o-o! " or otherwise waxed eloquent on the general futility of the scheme -- that the idea might work. Okay, none of you has fallen over yourself lauding the brilliance of it either, but I trust you're not here for the sadistic fun of seeing me make a complete idiot of myself over knitting. (At least, not solely here for that.)

The hope here is that one success will breed another. Then I can go back to thinking about knitting, reading about knitting, blogging about knitting, planning and fantasizing, oh, and knitting, with a clear conscience.