UFOs

The beginning and the end are the best parts of knitting. Looking through the pattern libraries on knitting sites, imagining my next project, is my favorite way to placidly unwind after a mentally exhausting day. Three fabulous and semi-local yarn stores breathe life into my daydreams as I see and touch all of the beautiful colours. There is no such thing as yellow yarn to a knitter; instead, there is candlewick, daffodil, hayloft, gold, gilded, autumn gold, cornfield, wild mustard, birch heather, shades 28, 91, and 121.

I also love the end, especially the joy that comes with making a poorly written pattern work, successfully using a new technique, or just finishing a project which required a monstrous amount of time and energy. There is very little as satisfying as throwing a finished piece in the tub for a good soak, blocking it on my wooly board or dressform, and tromping through the fields on the farm to get the perfect snap!

In the middle, however, the plain, old work of knitting round after round of stockinette stitch can stop me dead in my tracks. Even worse, I get unintentionally derailed by the delight of a new yarn or a new pattern. My lack of self-discipline often means that my plan to just purchase and stash a new yarn gives way to winding. If only I stopped there, but usually winding means swatching, followed by casting on. By then, I've found the progress that is so easy to spot in a new project far more tantalizing than the progress I can no longer see round after round. So I keep going, and BOOM! my WIP has morphed into a UFO. 

This weekend, the November weather turned, and it feels like snow is on its way. Mother Nature's stark reminder that 2014 is winding down has me also thinking about my personal goals for this year: 12 completed sweaters and no UFOs in my project library. I currently have three unfinished objects...

 Kate Davies's Stevenson Sweater

Merecedes Tarasovich-Clarks's Driftwood Tee and Cecilia Fiore's a_simmetrie  

With 45 days to go, I think I'll be a wee bit short of my sweater goal for the year, but I'm not giving up on my UFOs! 

Christmas (Sweater) Time is Here!

This week we turned the clocks back, plugged in the electric blanket, sipped egg nog laced with rum, and I finally started Bill's 2014 Christmas sweater! This will be his 7th Christmas sweater, and my most ambitious project yet.

I can't remember why I thought knitting my exceptionally tall boyfriend, whom I only met a month earlier, seemed like a good idea in 2007. In hindsight, it was a brazen act which sent a counter-challenge to the infamous boyfriend sweater curse and misleading vibes of commitment and domesticity to my future husband given that I moved every couple of years and survived on take away.

That sweater was my first, big knitting break-through! I remember feeling a tremendous sense of accomplishment finishing it at two o'clock Christmas morning while Bill was in the kitchen finishing the Christmas pies. It was the first time that I successfully substituted yarn, knit in the round, and tried raglan shaping. It is plain, warm (knit with two strands of sport weight), and comfy; perfect for the very cold barn in which we live. I never loved the colour but Bill does; of his sweaters, this is, by far, the one he wears the most!

The opportunity to consciously try a new technique is the thing I love most about "the Christmas Sweater": new finishing technique (Berkshire Pullover), v-neck and cables (Delius), hand-dyed yarns (Clark), and short rows (Shawl Collar Sweater).

My second big-knitting breakthrough occurred when I read an article which claimed most knitters underestimate their skill-set. I tested that theory last Christmas with Marie Wallin's Cartmeal Mens. Turns out that my totally unscientific study corroborated the theory. On paper, this sweater was absolutely intimidating. I purchased the yarn and the pattern at least two years before finally casting on because the cables are so beautifully intricate and scary. On needles, however, it was fabulously fun, quick, and easy to follow. Truly, the most beautiful sweater I've knit (to date)!

So here I am on the fifth of November...five days, 12 cm, two border patterns, and one complete skien of the main colour into this year's sweater! It is a stranded knitting pattern, technically more nordic than fair isle, but absolutely inspired by my trip to Shetland.

I'm using jumper weight yarn from two of my favorite Shetland producers: Uradale Farms and Jamieson & Smith. As for the colours, I followed the ridiculously talented Mary Jane Mucklestone's sagacious advice when choosing my palette: look to the land.

Do you see the influence? Clearly, I'm still dreaming of and longing for Shetland!