Enchanted

After finishing my Storm Water scarf I decided it was time to turn my attention to a genuine UFO, a wrap cardigan I had started last October. As with most projects I had begun it with great anticipation and knit up the back, two fronts, and most of one sleeve rather quickly. And then I stalled.

Looking it over I tried to figure out why it had become a UFO, despite my initial enthusiasm. As I measured the sleeve I realized that I had made it a 1/4" too long and needed to frog two rows before I could begin the armhole shaping. And I had eagerly sewn up the sides, neglecting to insert the all-important front ties, so the seams had to be unpicked and redone. Finally, I had been trying to come up with an alternate way of finishing the front and neck edges, hoping to avoid knitting miles and miles of seed stitch and stitching it in place as I went. I guess between them, those three issues were enough to make me abandon the project when something new and fresh came along.

Not surprisingly, the sweater didn't take long to complete, once I set my mind to it. Before 24 hours had passed I had already finished both sleeves. Next came the neckband and ties. In the end I decided the best way really was to knit miles and miles of seed stitch and sew it in place as I went; this took longer than I expected but went smoothly. All that remained was to attach the sleeves and sew the side and underarm seams. The sleeves went in easily (once again thanks to the Veronik Avery tutorial) but for some inexplicable reason I put off doing the rest of the seaming for a couple of days. At last, however, by Saturday night the sweater was seamed and blocked and blissfully done.

The yarn is Filati Cross in colour 119, the pattern an adaptation of the Wrapover Cardigan in Twilley's Freedom Spirit book #455.

So, with one project out of the way, what else is a girl to do but cast on another? I began a pair of Rivendell socks with some beautiful merino-tencel yarn (by West Coast Colour, hand-dyed by Lynne of Knitopia) and immediately fell under the spell of these Lord of the Rings-inspired socks. The autumn colours and silky sheen of the yarn set off the leafy and columned stitch pattern perfectly.

Armed with my new Knit Picks Harmony needles (which I love, love, love) I worked on the first sock almost all day yesterday and got as far as the foot. It was the perfect project to take along to Matt's road test this morning. As I listened to a Stash and Burn podcast on my iPod I nervously knit away on the sock, waiting for him and the tester to return. He passed!

Who knows? Maybe the sock brought him luck...