Stuff

I'm continuing to work on the UFO sweater...the white Knitter's magazine sweater from 1999, not a sweater with an alien on it...although I probably should put it down, as Spinnity suggested. Despite her good advice, I think I will continue to torture myself with it. Call me crazy. Or stupid. Having not finished much in the way of knitting projects over my many years of off and on knitting, I want to finish this one. Besides, I do need the practice. But last night was a true test on my patience. I settled in for a nice night of TV watching and knitting. I picked it up, started knitting and then found a mistake which caused me to rip about 7 rows, knit a few rows only to have to rip them too. After an evening of knitting, with time out to watch (i.e., look at the TV and not my knitting) the Project Runway finale, I only succeeded to get my knitting back to where it was sans error.

However today I zoomed ahead. I usually knit in the car on the way to work, while my husband drives. That's good for a few rows. I can't squeeze in any knitting during the workday because I take notes during meetings and even if my meetings were more listening than note taking, I'd feel odd knitting. But this morning I had to sit in on a dry run of a presentation via the speaker phone on my desk. Alone in my cubicle, I picked up my knitting. I was amazed at how knitting actually helped me pay attention to the meeting! Normally if I'm listening in on a meeting my eyes and hands roam to other tasks around me or the computer and I end up missing what's being said. I got quite a bit of knitting done too. Yay, for knitting.

I was so hung up on UFO sweater yesterday that I forgot to mention my attempts at spinning last Saturday. Spinnity hosted a spinning party in her home. There were about a dozen or so spinners ranging from newbies to accomplished. I'm a newbie. My only experience was a few minutes on drop spindle at Stitches a few years ago. It didn't thrill me and I wasn't all that excited about pursuing spinning until I came across an offer for a spinning wheel that was too good to pass up. So I bought the wheel and it sat idle in my family room. The spinning part was just what I needed to get me going. I had a really good time and I even did some spinning. Well, wonky, twisted, beginner spinning, but it's a start.

I may be working on UFO sweater but my mind is definitely on the next projects. Ok, next projects after I finish Liv and the red mittens, which may get put aside until Fall, because I'm not knitting mittens when it's warm out. I picked up some patterns at Stitches and I'm already antsy to buy the yarn for them. Here are my plans:

White Lies Designs: Beauty and the Beads - I'm think Rowan Calmer might be nice for this. It's a fitted cardigan and I think the stretch in the Calmer would help with that. I'm not sure I'll do all the beading on this though.

White Lies Designs: Bella - maybe the Brooks Farm Primero I bought at Stitches.

White Lies Designs: Krista (not on their website) - it's a short sleeved open weave top I thought would be great in some white bamboo I bought at Stitches.

Knitting Pure and Simple: Neck Down Hooded Tunic (#244) - I'm obsessed with this one. I see this in a drapey silk blend rather than a wool, especially since I don't need wool sweaters in this temperate climate of the Silicon Valley (not to be confused with foggy, summer temperatures in the SF, where you could wear a wool sweater!). I'm thinking Rowan Summer Tweed.

I have put sewing on the back burner during my recent knitting madness, but my husband asked me last night (while watching Project Runway) when I was going to start sewing my travel wardrobe for our trip to Europe this summer. Yikes. He's right. I better carve out some time to sew a few things!