Hello Knitty

It figures.

I wrote in the last post that my hopes for finishing my Shalom Cardigan before the end of the Olympics were all but a lost cause. Too much knitting, not enough time. Well, look what we have here.

Yes, that’s a finished body. And with four and a half days left in the Olympics, three of which I don’t have to work and could knit all day long, knocking out two sleeves should be no problem. I could do it. I could finish this cardigan, and feel good that I managed to knit two sweaters in two weeks.

Except I can’t. Because I underestimated how much yarn this cardigan would take, and don’t have enough yarn.

I don’t even have enough for one sleeve. Luckily – and I mean LUCKILY – I was able to find someone to sell me another skein of this yarn. There are only six people on Ravelry who have MadelineTosh Rustication worsted in Tart, so I really was sweating it – could I live with short sleeves? What about sleeveless like the pattern calls for? I wasn’t thrilled about the prospects, but then the lovely Maureen swept in and saved the day. She reads this blog, and I want to say thank you again to her. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. YOU ARE AWESOME AND CAN HAVE MY FIRST CHILD IF YOU WANT ALTHOUGH MY MOTHER MIGHT BE MAD IF YOU TAKE IT.

Since Shalom is hold, what do you think I’m going to knit next? Did you guess another sweater? You’re right! But HOLD. THE. PHONE. It’s not a cardigan, it’s a pullover. I’m going to be test knitting a sweater for the amazing Amy, the creative genius behind Stash, Knit, Repeat.

The sweater, which is called Adelina, uses two colors. I’m using Blue Moon Fiber Art’s BFL Sport in Meet Brown, Joe for the main color and Rose Quartz for the contrast color. I’ve never knit with BFL before, and I’m excited to see how the fabric turns out.

I don’t have any preview pictures of the sweater to show you, but trust me, it’s super cute. I can post pictures and talk about it while I’m knitting, so you will get a sneak peek before the pattern is released later this spring.

After I finished Liesl, I wrote on my Twitter that I was going to start a Shalom Cardigan, and one of my followers commented that she thought I’d said I was going to start knitting a slalom. Because of this, I’ll always think of my Shalom as the Slalom Shalom.

On Monday afternoon I had a small procedure done, which left me in pain for a couple days. I took advantage of it by knitting as much as I could, but I don’t think it was enough for me to be able to finish this by the end of the Olympics like I’d hoped. The twisted rib in the yoke took a long time, and I’m really happy to be done with it.

The yarn is, and I know this will shock you, MadelineTosh. It’s the Rustication base, which is 100% Cormo wool and only available on the etsy site. The color is Tart, which is such a perfect, saturated red. Rustication comes in lace, fingering, sport, and worsted weight. I’m using the worsted, which means that I’ve had to make a lot of adjustments to the pattern (it’s written for bulky yarn), and since I was making changes anyways, I’m adding in sleeves. I know modifying patterns doesn’t come easy to everyone, so once I’m finished with my Shalom I’ll type of my notes on the pattern and make it available on my Ravelry project page.

My Liesl cardigan is finished! And with hardly any yarn to spare.

Cast on Friday night, bound off Monday morning. That’s my type of sweater.

Next up: blocking!

The Ravelympics are underway, and I’m knitting my little fingers to the bone in pursuit of a medal in the Sweaterboard Cross.

I know there are a couple people who read my blog that aren’t knitters (hi mom!), so give me a second to explain it to them. The Ravelympics are the Olympics for knitters. You pick a project or projects, start on them at the beginning of the Opening Ceremonies, and the goal is to have them finished by the end of the Closing Ceremonies. The event I’m competing in, the Sweaterboard Cross, means that I’m planning on knitting an entire sweater during the course of the Olympics.

Now that we’re a couple days into the games, I realize I should have picked a more challenging project. My sweater will be finished by the end of the first week, and probably way before it. Maybe even by tomorrow night. I’m knitting Liesl, by Ysolda Teague, and while in person the sweater appears to fit a four year old, I tried it on this morning and I’m about 2/3 of the way done. Nothing like a lacy pattern and size 10 1/2 needles to make you seem like a quick knitter!

Unlike my Tea Leaves Cardigan, I have buttons all picked out. I’m finding the color of the yarn really difficult to photograph with the overcast day we’re having in North Idaho, so you’ll have to take my word for it that they go together perfectly. The buttons, as usual, are from Green Ray Productions. The yarn is MadelineTosh Vintage, and it is OMGHOLYPONIES!!!1!! I don’t want to knit with another worsted weight yarn ever again.

My Tea Leaves Cardigan is very nearly done!

After casting off the last stitch on Monday, I’ve been working slooooowly on weaving in the ends and sewing up the sleeves, hoping I could drag it out until today so I wouldn’t be tempted to start my Ravelympics project too soon (more on that in another post!). With four hours to go until the Opening Ceremonies, I still have one sleeve to seam.

The pattern calls for the sleeves to be knit in the round but, and I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned this here, but I am useless when it comes to DPNs. My knitting always looks like crap, unless I’m working on socks from the toe-up, which somehow come out fine. So until I learn magic loop or how to knit a tube with two circular needles, I’m forced to knit my sleeves flat.

These are the only buttons I have that would work for this sweater, but I’m not convinced that they’re right for it. I’d really love to hear your opinion.

Here’s a closer look at them. As you can probably tell, they have red and gold sparkles on the front, and I’m thinking something a little simpler might look better.

Best be off to finish things up! I have my yarn wound for tonight, and I’ve already knit a gauge swatch so I am ready to go the moment the ceremony starts. Oh, but one last thing before I go:

How handsome is this guy? He’s happily purring away on my lap as I type this.