Thanks to all of you lovely readers who provided compliments and encouragement for my NaKniSweMo cardigan in November. Here it is, December 1, and I had hoped to give you a nice “reveal” photo of me wearing my finished NaKniSweMo cardigan. Alas, it is not to be. Not just yet.
I’m fighting off a cold, as well as all trying to keep my head above water in the midst of the paper-writing and paper-grading nonsense that comes with the end of an academic semester in a humanities graduate program.
I did sew up the shoulders and set in the first sleeve of my cardigan. At this stage, the sleeve looks to be a little too long. Argh! I’ve talked myself into pressing on with the finishing for now, since sometimes the final sewing and knitting on collars and such brings everything together. If the sleeves still end up too long, I’m considering re-doing them from the shoulder down by picking up stitches/adding short row shaping. I’ve heard a lot about that technique but have yet to try it. Of course, I’ll fill you all in on how it goes.
Finishing sweaters demands my full focus and attention, unfortunately, and I just don’t see myself having the energy for any more of it until the weekend. In the meantime, I’ve been keeping my hands busy in the few odd moments I find for knitting with this:
It is a DK weight sock for my partner in the International Sock Swap I’m participating in. What a saga of indecision this swap project has been for me! I could not make up my mind (as you regular readers of this blog will have noticed by now). This is the third pattern and yarn match-up that I’ve pursued, but I think I’ve finally picked a winner.
The pattern is called Duckies, an adorable free offering by Samantha Hayes of Aquaknits (Rav link). Concerned that my swap buddy wouldn’t want to have to handwash these socks, I finally settled on a superwash DK weight yarn from Cherry Tree Hill. It is Supersock DK Select in the color called Wild Cherry.
I’m a little bit sad that these socks are knitting up so quickly because this stuff is so wonderful to work with! I’m glad though because this swap package needs to be in the mail before the end of December. I’ll turn the heel on the first sock tonight (assuming I meet my paper grading quota for the day. . .) and I expect the second sock to fly off the needles next week as school starts to ease up (finally!). After these, it’s back to slogging along. I wonder how many WIPs I can get off the needles before New Years!
