bursting at the seams

I almost forgot that I will be going up to Boston this weekend for a wedding. Aside from good times with friends, the long road trip will translate into plentiful mindless knitting time. This fall may turn out to be insanely busy on the books/words/intangibility facet of my life, so I’m trying to take advantage of these last few summer weeks to spend extra time on the tangible side of things.
On this trip to Boston, I hope to make progress on my Tangled Yoke Cardigan. I have been lusting after this cardigan ever since I started knitting almost three years ago. I have been working on it since March, even hauling it over to Europe. The sleeves are finished and I am about a third of the way up the body, so perhaps only halfway done overall. I am excited about completing the sweater, but not so much about wearing it. That’s my unfortunate gripe with knitting – there’s no instant gratification, so often by the time I finish a project, I no longer like it. My Ms. Marigold sweater vest is currently languishing in the bottom of a dresser drawer, on the verge of being donated if it weren’t for sentimental reasons (it fits small to medium, does anyone want it?), and my purple short-sleeve cardigan is experiencing the frustrations of being a short-sleeve heavy sweater, weather appropriate for only two hours out of two days of the year.

Meanwhile, I’ve been able to complete two other projects that will hopefully be more useful:
Herringbone socks for my husband which turned out beautifully despite many sloppy errors that I will choose not to disclose. The pattern and the yarn went together perfectly. As beautiful as the final sock turned out, I will never use this pattern again, because it was too annoying to knit. It requires you to knit two stitches, slip them back to the left needle, slip another stitch over, and then slip two stitches back. These socks probably took three times longer than usual to knit. The pattern also requires your full attention and yet was boring to knit. (Usually, boring things to knit don’t require attention so you can watch TV or read at the same time, while things that do require attention are quite interesting to knit).
Blue & blue endpaper mitts to keep my hands warm in the winter, since our house will be kept frigid now that we’re paying the actual heating bill. They are slightly tight, but will hopefully loosen with wear. My first colorwork project.

In examining the stitch quality of the endpaper mitts, I’ve noticed that my colourwork skills seem to atrophy quickly, so I’ve already started working on the gorgeous Selbu Modern hat in lovely lavender and white to keep up my technique. This is all with the end goal of knitting in the distant future the Autumn Rose sweater, which I now anticipate, I will no longer like once I have spent 500+ hours knitting it.

I also plan to re-complete my Gretel hat, after my previous sizing disaster. I’ve started it, but I’m currently stalled in my usual state of indecision about which size to knit.

Otherwise, once the Tangled Yoke Cardigan is complete, I may hunt for another sweater project (currently considering: Farmer's Market Cardigan, Millefiori Cardigan, Oriel Lace Blouse, Carnaby Street Pullover, Lace Cardigan, Printed Silk Cardigan and a few sweaters from Feminine Knits) but I may also get started with stash-reduction and gift and charity knitting. In this pile of lovely yarn, I see socks, lace shawls, hats and scarves! (There's actually two drawers, not just one, filled with yarn). I may even try to design something myself again. If you praise my knitting enough, you may receive something, but no promises.

In the sewing world, I finally mustered up the courage to install my walking foot and quilted two placemats. After weeks of procrastination because I couldn’t find an appropriate quilting pattern, I improvised, which proved to be easy, fun and successful.

Unfortunately, this also means I no longer have an excuse to avoid working on my Bento Box Quilt, which I started in June 2008. The quilt top is complete. I just have to sew and measure the backing and then it should be ready to quilt. I still have no idea how to quilt it beyond ‘stitching in the ditch’ (in other words, stitching along the seamlines), but hopefully if I stare at the quilt long enough, inspiration will strike.

I also need to muster up the motivation to complete this New Look halter dress, which I also began last summer. After frustrating alterations to the bust, I gave up and let the dress sit. It would be nice to be able to wear it before another autumn rolls around.

I’ve also noticed that I’m more interested in alterations to clothing, rather than sewing them from scratch. I’m not sure whether this is related to wanting instant gratification or whether there’s something intimidating about starting with just cloth and tissue paper. We shall see. Meanwhile, despite a few thrift store alteration failures, there have been a few successes. Perhaps I will post pictures in the weeks to come.

Phew! Now it felt good to get that all out! I can pretend to be all intellectual, writing about society and culture and smart stuff like that, but what really gets me going is talking about my knitting, my sewing and what I ate last night. If you don’t believe me, you can just ask my husband. He spends plenty of time listening to my endless mundane ramblings sans theoretical or philosophical musings. Or atleast I think he's listening...