Winter Is Coming

Over the past month I having been knitting away on my new sweater. Today our temps seriously dropped and I realized just how quickly winter is coming and that I need a new completed sweater. The magical word being completed.

So just how close am I to completion?

Well let's see. We started with the back on October 8.

Then just a mere 10 days later the back was complete and I picked up with the left front. When I reached the armhole shaping on the left front I realized there was an issue with it not matching up to the back. Whatwo!

 

I thought staring at the sweater would miraculously fix the issues. Sadly it did not.

After some serious pattern rereading, math and a bunch of texts messages and a phone call with my sister, I realized there was an error in the pattern, even though I had the updated version of the pattern that supposedly fixed the issue with the number of cast on stitches and stitch counts after the decrease and increase sections. So this happened to the back:

And three days later we had this:

Once all was well in the land of knitting, I quickly finished the left front:

Then the right front:

As of Sunday, I entered sleeve island.

So what is my grand master plan to get this baby done? Well. I don't really have one. I know I'd like to have it done for Thanksgiving. It's quite possible to achieve that deadline, but I am not going to drive myself crazy to get there.

I am hoping that by the end of this upcoming weekend I will have both sleeves done. If I do, I will proceed to attach them to the sweater and seam up the sides. Then I'll be left with the collar, which in reality isn't all that bad once you get past picking up all the necessary stitches. I need to look in my notions stash to see if I have snaps for closing the sweater. I think I do, but of course this wouldn't be the first time my memory has failed me. So we shall see.

I know I have been absent from this blog for quite a bit. Lots of personal stuff  has been happening during the past couple of months and unfortunately it has taken my attention from this little space. I hope one day to share everything that has been going on, but until then, I would love to get back here for more regular postings. I get a little sad when I look at my list of posts that I started and never had the chance to complete. Some of them can just be trashed, but maybe I can revive a couple of them even if it's a little late.

Glazed Carrots

Alas, it has been confirmed this morning that my sister won't be visiting me for Rhinebeck this year. While I am extremely bummed, I completely understand. There will always be next year for us to hit up our favorite fiber festival.

In the end, I think things always work out the way they are supposed to and I can tell you right now, I'm not sure if I will even have a sweater completed in time. So now I am off the hook, right?

Let me back up a little.

September was a busy, and a little crazy, month for me. I've been in and out of doctor's appointments, catching up on work stuff, apartment stuff still not done and frankly, when I finally went through my yarn stash, I was completely disappointed and lost my steam for knitting a sweater in time for the festival.

See, I have some fabulous sweater yarn in it that I purchased during my past adventures at  Rhinebeck. When said yarn was purchased, there were no patterns in my mind for them, so I tried to buy an amount that I thought would give me some options for knitting them up.

After I decided I was going to knit Montauk, I proceeded to plunge head first into my stash and when I came up for air, I seriously wanted to weep just a tad. Not only was I about 1 skein short for knitting Montauk, but I also was short for Pinoli.

At this time I am thinking I am still going to Rhinebeck and that I can't possibly go without knitting a new sweater. I searched and searched the interwebs for another yarn choice for either sweater and even another sweater pattern that would fit my yardage. I found a couple of yarns that I liked, but couldn't commit because of my indecisiveness in the colors. I also found another sweater that I like, but I wasn't so sure of the fit for my body. Deflated, I stopped looking for a few days.

Fast forward to Wednesday of last week, I realized that if I am going to Rhinebeck I knew there was no way I would finish Montauk in time. Pinoli maybe, but Montauk? Wasn't going to happen. I was also still not 100% on the other sweater I had found.

So what does one do? I plunged back into the interwebs and perused my friends' completed knits on Ravelry and came back to a pattern that I fell in love with when I first saw it many moons ago. In comes Mod Podge:

One of my dear friends knitted it in 2011 for Rhinebeck and I died and went to yarn heaven! That's how much I loved the pattern and the yarn! I mean, let's just look at how lovely it truly is:

And of course, after exchanging a few text messages with this lady, I realized this was my sweater to knit for Rhinebeck.

Did I think I could finish this one in time? Absolutely and those of you who know me, know I could get it done.

Did I have enough yarn in stash to knit it? Yes, but unfortunately the yarn has too much give and stretches when washed and blocked. I needed a firmer yarn for this style jacket.

I went to Webs Yarn and looked at the yarn Miss Shameka Knits used for hers and they had the color I wanted. The one that I have been obsessed with during the past few Fall seasons. Today, it arrived and looks a little like this:

It's Malabrigo Rios in Glazed Carrot colorway. The color is actually a deeper orange than what you see in the picture. The light shining from the ceiling makes it look like a pumpkin. I am so in love with it. I know this yarn is pricey, but I got a 20% discount and truthfully, I wanted to treat myself just a little, especially after the past month I had been through. This yarn makes me smile and makes my heart flutter.

Even though I am most likely not going to Rhineback, I am still hoping to finish this baby in time for it, just in case I do mange to venture up there for one of the days. There's some big stuff happening for me around that time, so I am not 100% sure if I'll make it, but if I do, I want to be wearing my glazed carrot/pumpkin!