The Home Stretch

So Close!

I am within about 3 inches of finishing the last piece of the sweater. I am also on my last ball of yarn, which is a pretty serious concern since I will still have to add the button band and collar. I'm hoping to finish knitting the sleeve today and then, technically, I could block the pieces today. Blocking takes some time, so we'll see how that goes, but this is a huge milestone!

I am really nervous to sew it up. I have another cardigan that fits me perfectly, so I will be using that as my model when I block the pieces, but, well, you all know why I am nervous. I designed this sweater and it is suppose to fit me. I can't even go there. One crisis at a time.

We are out of this yarn at the shop. I know we are out of it because I took each and every skein we had when I selected it for the sweater class. And we have not reordered. I also know this because I am intimately familiar with every single solitary ball of yarn we have. That's what happens on a slow day at work. After months of rearranging displays and profiling yarn on sleepy Sunday afternoons, we have become one.

The yarn I chose for this sweater is Sublime Extra-Fine Merino Wool DK. And even though we no longer have any of this in Putty, what we do have is Sublime Cashmere Merino Silk DK in Putty. It is the exact same color and the exact same weight. It just has a bunch of cashmere and silk thrown in. Which means that my button band and collar will be extra luxurious because that is what I am using. I couldn't bear the thought of ordering the yarn for just a couple of balls and then waiting for it to come in when I'm ready to do this NOW. So I checked a couple of the Cashmere Merino Silk skeins out of inventory and I'm back in business. Wish me luck!

Sock Wars prize

Yesterday in the mail I received my socks from Sock Wars III! Yes, I know I had given up on them, and well, the game took a very weird turn. Someone else took over and there is a group still playing. And somehow my name ended up on that list. One of the participants contacted me a few weeks ago and asked where I was in all of this. I was pretty honest with her and explained that, not only do I not have time for this, but the communication is so wacky that I just have given up.

Well, this girl is way into it. She has already knit 5 pairs of socks and is still going strong. She asked if I wanted her next pair, as technically I was her next target. I very sheepishly explained that I had already ripped out the sock I had been making because the pattern was so poorly written, so I would only have a ball of yarn to send her. She seemed fine with that and, voila, here are the socks she made me! This girl is very sweet and I think I would have had a lot more fun playing the game if everyone had had her attitude.

In other knitting news, I think I may be knitting a dishcloth. This is news because I truly don't understand the world of knitting dishcloths. Other than the fact that they make a great my-first-knitting-project, I see no need. I can't imagine anything more boring. Fine--it's a reusable resource granola granola granola...I have better things to do. And then I found this on Wilde Thyme Knits blog: a martini glass dishcloth (which she got from Bavgirl). And I know a certain someone at My Pink Toes who has a little thing for the martini....

The baby hat business is crazy busy as usual. I took a week off from Willow and Bloom to get caught up on some other things and I'm sure that will come back to bite me since I kind of forgot that Day Camp is next week. Which only affects me in that I'm in charge of snacks for 300 kids for the week (and I was smart and took my husband to Costco with me this year to avoid a repeat of the 1-girl-2-Costco-shopping-carts-fiasco of 2007). And no, I didn't really forget that we had Day Camp. I just didn't think long and hard about the implication of taking the week off when I will have no time NO TIME next week to get anything done.

Other exciting things in my life? I discovered that vinegar really does kill weeds, my sister is bringing me back a I'm Not A Plastic Bag knock off from a street vendor she found on her trip to New York, and AT & T said it's finally time to replace my 2 year old duct taped together cell phone. Any suggestions?