Colorwork and Chimpanzees

I forgot to post a picture yesterday of my progress on belated Christmas Sweater #7, so here it is.  It is a sort of gloomy day today, so my lighting is terrible, which kind of makes the color look like an olive shade but it’s really a nice spring green – Sublime Extra Fine Merino Wool DK, color #0019.  The pattern is Nantucket Red and is the second I’ve made from Thea Colman.  I like her designs a lot and there are several in my ever-expanding queue.  I’ve nearly completed the back and the lines you see in the middle are actually lace columns that will show nicely once the sweater is blocked.  I fully expect to complete this sweater by my January 14^th deadline.  Yay!  The Husband was a tad disappointed the other day when he saw me casting on something other than the sweater I’ll be making him, but he’s being awfully patient (what a good chap)!

I attended knit night last night at my LYS.  We hadn’t had a Tuesday gathering in a while due to the holidays so it was nice to get back to it.  Unfortunately, there is the pall of an uncertain future still hanging over the shop due to its scheduled closure at the end of February.  We are still hoping a buyer will step in and save the day.  Regardless, it was a fun night and I managed to leave having made some actual progress on my knitting and having only purchased a small amount of yarn for some baby stuffs.  [Dear Husband – let me calm your fears since I know if you’re reading this, you’ve been cringing since you read the word “purchased”.  I only spent $8.]  We sang to Lady L. whose birthday was this past Sunday and shared a lovingly-baked cake brought my Deanne.  While Deanne didn’t bake the cake, I’m sure the Sam’s Club baker who did made it with love.  Besides, Deanne gets extra points for using those little toothpicks with the colored cellophane at the top in lieu of candles because I thought they looked rather cool.  I wish I’d gotten a picture.

KnitPicks Chroma

I also got my very first catalog from KnitPicks yesterday.  I’d ordered some yarn from them for my holiday knitting and so now I’m on their mailing list.  I didn’t have a chance to look at it until this morning, and WOW!!  Between the patterns and the yarn and the notions (oh, my!), I was in knitting heaven for a bit.  I love it when you get to see every color made in a yarn at a glance.  I’d love it even more if I had every color made in every yarn made (except mohair – hate it) in every corner of the universe.  Speaking of colors, the patterns in the catalog were mostly color work and I must say, I feel the nudge getting stronger to muster my courage and try some.  It looks so cute.  Then again, so do chimpanzees but they can still, at best, fling poo at you, and at worst, rip your face off.  Soooo, maybe not.

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What’s the knitting technique or project that you’re still trying to get brave enough to try?