It is finished.

It was finished at least a month ago, but I stalled when it came to the finishing. This is often the case for me. Tonight however I snipped off all of my stray tails and put my buttons on. I'm swollen with water weight now, so it isn't a bit attractive on me right now, but I believe one day it will be. I still love the yarn and Im pleased with the buttons. they were tough to choose, but I think they are perfect. I can't wait to wear it. A completed sweater. Who knew. I'm inspired to make other things that I can actually wear. Such a novel concept for a girl like me. I have to own that a good deal of my inspiration comes from the amazing Cathe. Thanks for keeping me inspired!

Slow going

Not much to report yet on this crazy scheme for the sweater. I have only done a few rows, and so far I think it will work, but it may take a bit before I can really see the overall effect. So I thought that I would do a little post about a new discovery I made when I started this project. I had a specific needle in mind, the addi turbo, when I bought this yarn and they happen to be out of it in the size I needed, so I decide to try the same needle, but the version made specially for lace knitting. They are brass coated and have a much sharper tip on the end of the needle. If you have ever knit lace you know exactly why a sharper needle could be a very good thing. Well, I absolutely love them. I have always been frustrated by dull needles. So with all this knitting and re-knitting I am glad that I have needles that I love!

tenacious |təˈnā sh əs|
adjective
not readily letting go of, giving up, or separated from an object that one holds, a position, or a principle
• not easily dispelled or discouraged; persisting in existence or in a course of action

Well, I guess I'm not a total slacker, I must have some degree of tenacity, because I am embarking on a new leg in my sweater journey. Let me tell you, I have fought going down this next road to reach sweater completion. I even set it aside for a whole nights worth of knitting, and abandoned another night of knitting to go to The Yarnery and seek counsel about how to proceed. If you have a keen eye you will see from my picture what the problem is. Hand dyed yarn can vary quite a bit, even in the same dye lot. I have two skeins each of yarns that match themselves, but not each other. In the light of day the difference is remarkable. So how did you proceed? Well, the answer is that you rip out the sweater that is half way done and start over again knitting two rows of one then two rows of the other, alternating back and forth for the whole sweater. Yup, that is the only acceptable solution. The other possibility was to use the darker color on the back and have a sweater that was light in front and dark in back. I never would have been happy with that solution. So after I took this picture last night I undid the entire sweater and tonight I will begin Elysium 4.0. Like I said in an earlier post, it is a good thing this yarn isn't prone to pilling or fuzzing. This is a lot of re-working for any yarn! And this just reinforces the importance of loving the yarn enough that you are willing to go to such lengths to have something made with it! I may have to revise my dream of wearing this by April...

Elysium

Yes, that is the name of the sweater that I began a few weeks ago. And yes, this is a picture of said sweater. The sun was shining so brightly this day and reflecting off of all that snow out my front windows. It seemed like a good time to try and get a picture. It gives a fairly accurate representation of the color. I am still really loving this yarn. It is Malabrigo Rios in Playa. I love, love, love, this yarn. I already loved Malabrigo, but this is by far my favorite. It is heavy and soft, but it is clean. I am not a fan of really pilly yarns. I am hard on my yarn, but I don't want it to look like it! I think this will hold up well with wear. And I actually have good reason to think so. You see, in usual V form, I have already started this sweater three times. And even with two restarts the yarn is not fuzzing or really looking any different than the untouched skeins. That is a good sign that it will wear well. There were restarts because I was working out a few kinks. I added five stitches too many to the length the first time around. Yes, it did make a difference. So the first rip out was all the way to the cast on row. I had only knit about half of the front left side though. Not too bad. The second was because I realized that I was doing my W&T (wrap and turn) stitch wrong. I had done a pattern with this stitch before, but watched a really good video on youtube just as a refresher. Well, I was interrupted before I got to the last crucial part of the stitch. So version number two was ripped once I got to the left sleeve because I realized that I had done the stitch wrong! So here I am sporting the left front and left sleeve of Elysium 3.0. The length is good and the stitches are right. I have since finished about half of the back. This project is just what I wanted and needed for a project right now. Just enough detail that I have to pay a little attention, but not so much that I can't watch tv at night while knitting!

Life Imitates Art

Slacker |ˈslakər|
noun informal
a person who avoids work or effort.

I would say I am lacking effort. I don't like to blog when I don't have a picture and I don't take the pictures because I like to make them pretty, and I don't have any inclination to make a pretty picture beyond just the notion of, "hey wouldn't that be pretty", passing through my head, only to be shot down the next moment by "eh". So, no pictures, no blogs. This however, does not mean that I am not busy with things.
The other day I was at Treadle and one of the ladies behind the counter was knitting a toddler sweater from a pattern she found at The Yarnery. (Aside: these are my top two "happy places" so any story containing a reference to both must be significant!) So she was knitting away and I was, of course, chatting and asking about this cute pattern. Then she tells me that there is also an adult pattern for this sweater and I instantly resolved that I must have one. Here comes the significant part. You see I have been a knitter for about 13 years and have only attempted two sweaters in all of that time. Neither was very successful. This produced an aversion and, might I say, fear, of knitting a sweater. Then suddenly, here I am, with a new baby at home, deciding that this is the time. I will make a sweater.
For a long time now I have been mulling over this theory that, for me, it is not that "Art Imitates Life", but rather that "Life Imitates Art". I find that as I work out my issues with projects I see all these parallels in life. Project problems are like a microcosm of how we deal with larger issues. It is enlightening because it is simplified. All the gray of relationships and situations are stripped away and you are faced with something that only has the gray of creativity, but it also has the absolute of math. Where there is a right or wrong answer. How you go about struggling through to find a solution can be really revealing about how you operate as a person. If you can overcome a fear with needles and yarn, then maybe those bigger things aren't so scary.
So anyway, there I was, a few days later, with my hands full of yarn, and my new found resolve to conquer a fear. And while I was there I also decided what the next sweater will be, with every confidence that there will be a next.
Check back sometime when there might be a picture of this sweater in progress. Because it is in progress and coming along quite nicely. But I can't promise that the pictures will be pretty.