The Meat and Potatoes

Several months ago when I was looking ahead to 2009 one of my goals was to finish a minimum of three WIP’s and UFO’s, particularly a Fleece Artist Garter Stitch Jacket that I had begun almost two years before. Anything else, I wrote, I considered gravy.

Well, pull up your chairs for some meat and potatoes ‘cause the jacket is D-O-N-E.

Why, oh why, did it take so long to finish? It’s garter stitch, for heaven’s sake. Well, even though the pattern itself is extremely simple, I found that the yarn required great attention. My needles constantly got caught in the boucle loops or mohair fibres so I had to watch every stitch. Added to that was the fact that the yarn was too dark to work on in the evening. And let’s face it, row after row of garter stitch is not exactly stimulating knitting.

It also didn’t help that I messed with the pattern so that I could avoid as many seams as possible. Knitting the jacket in one piece to the armholes and working a 3-needle bind off at the shoulders was easy enough. What was a bit trickier was figuring out how I could knit the sleeve in the round from the armhole down. I kept putting it off and putting it off, even though in the end it didn’t prove to be difficult at all. I thought after I’d done one sleeve that I would immediately do the other but other things came up and, well, it got pushed to the side again. When I finally dragged it out again last week it only took a few days. Makes me want to smack myself.

But it was worth the wait. I love the way it fits. I love the way it feels. I love the way the sunlight makes the sapphire blue and emerald green come to life. And don’t you just love this shawl pin? I’ve had it in my jewelry box for months, just waiting for this moment.

In other knitting news, I can now tell you that I spent the latter part of February working on a secret project. I was very flattered to be asked to test knit the mystery sock for SKA’s March challenge and of course I said yes. The designer, Kristi Schueler, was a pleasure to work with and as my fellow SKA’ers can attest, having seen the results of Clues #1 and #2, she has created a beautiful and interesting sock for us (go here to get a taste). It has been a lot of fun seeing it made up in all sorts of different yarns and colours. I’ll show off my version in a couple of weeks, once all the clues have been posted.

Since finishing up the mystery sock I have been on a ridiculous sock kick and currently have no fewer than five pairs on the needles, two from Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarns. But that won’t stop me from casting on another, plain pair to work on this weekend, when we go to Victoria to visit Cameron’s family. Once good thing about making this trip is

(drive to and from the ferry + ferry ride) x 2 = plenty of mindless knitting time

And to leave you with a little taste of why I love to live where I live, here is what I saw when I sat down to dinner the other night.

I only wish the photo did it justice.