Feeding the Obsession

Happy Friday everyone!  I hope all you moms had a great Mother’s Day last weekend.  Mine was pretty awesome.  I got to talk to my mom and my son and daughter-in-law on the phone, and had a lovely meal out with The Husband and my daughter the evening before.  I don’t know how it is outside of the U.S., but a hundred years ago when I worked in restaurants, we approached Mother’s Day with fear and trembling.  It was the busiest day of the entire year, even busier than New Year’s Eve.  So we wisely went the day before.

My daughter brightened the day even more with a gift card to KnitPicks.  The girl knows me.  She clearly recognizes my unhealthy robust obsession with yarn and chooses to help me feed it.  It was because of her that I began designing knitwear.  Two Christmas’s ago, she presented me with Barbara Walker’s first volume of stitches.  The card that year read, “Because your obsession isn’t deep enough already.”  Yes, the girl knows me.  She either genuinely wants to bring great yarny joy into my life, or she’s plotting how she’ll take things over once they find me rocking back and forth in the corner of my craft room, tangled in yarn and repeating, “Must have more.  It’s soooo pretty…”  

Either way, I’ll take it.

So this is the haul I got from the Mother’s Day gift card:

The yarn is CotLin with which I will make something summery.  I have next to no cotton in my stash so summer yarn was an obvious choice.  You’ll see I also got another set of sock needles because having just one pair of socks cast on at a time is no longer enough.  Ironic that I chose to buy some nickel-plated sock DPNs (my other set is wood), considering my first ever disastrous encounter with DPNs was with metal needles.  O.o

Last but not least, I picked up another stitch dictionary - Melissa Leapman’s The Knit Stitch Pattern Handbook.  Believe it or not, it has put me in the mood to…SWATCH.  I know, unbelievable, but true.  Perhaps there’ll be some more designing in my near future.  

Lisa  

Sweater Love

Just a quick note today to show off my finished Wyeth cardigan and I must say…

I. LOVE. IT.

The Husband got some good pics this morning out by the lake in which I don’t look terribly hideous and so I’m one happy knitter.

Behold, on the ground!

The Husband loves the picture to the right.  I think it's stupid, but he was nice enough to postpone what he was doing this morning to take pictures for me so I'm posting it just for him.  For the record, I was pointing to some blackberries that are growing on the slope that goes down to the lake in our back yard.  I had no idea they were there.  









Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

I’m SO ready to cast on another project that is not socks.  I’m still on my sock kick, but that only works for me if I have something else on needles that are larger than size 2 to break the monotony (I’m currently suffering from 2nd sock syndrome…can you tell?).  

Unfortunately, I’ve looked at hundreds of patterns on Rav and nothing has inspired me so far.  It has really frustrated me to no end this week.  With all those patterns to choose from, why the problem?  

Here’s why:

I’ve got everything I need to start Carol Feller’s Sandy Cove cardigan, including some yummy madelinetosh yarn.  I bought this pattern even before it was published because I was so excited about it.  It's adorable.  So...what's keeping me from casting on?  Short rows.  Yep, Carol Feller is famous for them and the few times I’ve done them, the result has not been stellar.  It's picking up the wraps that wreck my knitting serenity.  I stink at it (although, it has been forEVER since I tried short rows--'cause, you know, I sucked at it).  I now realize that the reason I have felt so desperate to find another pattern is because I’m in complete avoidance of the obvious choice.  

Don’t worry, I WILL screw up the courage to start this project.  I did register for a free class on Craftsy in which Carol Feller herself teaches on short rows.  I'm sure I'll learn a lot.  Eventually.  In the meantime, if I just happen to run across another pattern that captures my attention, well…

Lisa
xoxoxo




P.S.--Last summer at the Magnolia State Fiber Festival, I picked up some madelinetosh tosh merino light in both tart and jade, one of which I'll be using for my Sandy Cove.  Just so I can't use it as another reason to delay casting on, help me decide on a color!  What say ye?