to FO or not to FO...

Well, blocked and worn, here's DONNA! The sweater didn't come out exactly the way I wanted. I had hoped for a a bit of a fitting, va-va-voomy sort of sweater and instead I got a slouchy, kind-a-roomy sweater which fits and will be a good comfort of a sweater to wear come this fall. The short rows ending up giving me too much room in the bust and the ribbing on the side didn't pull it in in the waist as much as I had hoped. But c'mon, let's remember that a sweater is not a shaper, if ya know what I mean.

Pattern: Donna
Yarn: Jo Sharp Silk Road DK Tweed in "Cedar"
Yarn enabler: Webs
Knit on: One 36" Knitpicks Size 5
Time I spent knitting this and about 4 other projects: Three months! Good god, that's a long time for a stockinette sweater. I must have been distracted by the socks!

Hey, it's an FO. And it's going might be the only one around for a while....

Say hello to my ball and chain. It's a gift for someone else's attaching of a ball-and-chain. I say that with more bitterness than I intend because I certainly don't think of marriage as a ball-and-chain affair and because I find the knitting fairly enjoyable. I'm mostly bitter because this is an UFO whose emotional rush of completion is a LOOOONNNG way off. This little panel represents one complete repeat of 22 rows and almost two skeins of knitting. I have 24 more skeins to go and I'm worried that the afghan will be too short and that I may have to throw myself on Knitpicks' matching dyelot mercy. I think the afghan will feel lovely, be beautiful, and be a project full of affection for the marrying friend. In the meanwhile I've decided that whenever I knit at home it has to be on this project and not any other or I'll never finish it. I've already conceded that I won't finish in time for their August 5th wedding, but I refuse to use up the entire year past the wedding in which it is still polite to present the gift. And I have to finish this up with some alacrity as I have another friend marrying in October...

Yup, this is my out-of-apartment knitting. It calls to me regularily because I know with just a few
hours of knitting I could get the rush of having an FO. God, I love that rush. I think I knit and finish things fast because I love that rush so much. But know I must be disciplined...and perhaps knowing that I can knit on it when I'm exercising or hanging out at a cafe or with knitters or while on a subway means this little beret has in its power to get me out of the house.

Here's my future...part of my buying spree was the acquisition of all these Interweave issues from when I wasn't so so so obsessed with knitting. The embossed leaves socks are in there, the Pearl Buck jacket, the Hepburn pullover...new projects to obsess over... to wait patiently in line while I enter the afghan black hole.

And have you seen this? The Knitting Circle Shows Its Chic.