Unseasonable

Cupcake has goaded me into making a knittilicious post - I feel I must oblige her. That and the fact that I spent over an hour in line today at Stitch DC for their 20% off everything sale prompted this post. I never thought I would participate in their sale, but I've been in such a knitting slump for the past few weeks that I thought a yarn store might cheer me up. It sort of did. And I used the discount to get Noro Kureyon - a yarn I've always loved, but didn't think I could afford.That logic was also used on my purchase of 40" addi turbos. I have heard wonderful things about them, but I love my Denise set so much I didn't want to cheat on her with Addis. I think I have avoided any needle jealousy though, because the Addis I needed were size 1 or 2 and the Denise set doesn't have those. My plan is to finally try out socks or mittens using the infamous Magic Loop method. Wheee!

In another attempt to get excited about knitting again, I broke out Erich's aran sweater for the first time in months to get blocking and eventually seaming. Once upon a time (over 8 mos. ago) I said I was all done knitting that sucker, but I re-read the pattern a bit later and realized that after partially seaming it together, I get to knit up the neck a bit. Doh! I've been stuck in this rut on the sweater because all I want to do is seam it up, but I read that I should first block the pieces because it will make seaming much easier (also the arms are different sizes so I have to fix that). Then the task of blocking this monster paralyzed me for quite a while. I finally made this huge blocking board last weekend, but as it turns out, I don't really need it. The kitchen table works just fine. Did I mention that this period of procrastination has been going on since Christmas 2004? Yeah, it was supposed to be gifted way back then. My SnB'ers can attest to that. If I didn't have their support (and dare I say, nagging?) I think I would have just let this project die a slow death in a bag somewhere. I don't want to give the impression that I'm sick of it. I really can't wait to see it finished. But I finished the fun knitting part so long ago that it kind of feels like a homework assignment now. Sorry for the slight blurriness on this last photo. I hope you can still see the stitch detail.

I still am on the fence about participating in the knitting olympics. But the next two projects I have lined up are socks (possibly Falling Leaves from knitty) and mittens out of the Kuryeon. I think I succeeded in picking a colorway that's totally the opposite of what I usually go for. That was my point. I'm sick of having all black things - coat, shoes, gloves, pants, etc. My goal is to make loud mittens. And I also prohibited myself from getting blue today. It's too much of a cop-out for me since everything I buy (both clothing and things for the apt.) are in shades of blue.
While I like this überwarm winter we're having, it makes projects like wool mittens seem a little absurd. I will not let unseasonable weather change my knitting habits though.