Fiber Fool

To say that the last several months have been crazy is an understatement. Not only was I trying to wrap up Nourishing Knits, but I was frantically knitting THREE projects for Jane Austen Knits and one for PieceWork because, to be truthful, some guaranteed income was quite welcomed.

Now that Nourishing Knits is done I somehow had thought I’d have a bit of a break. This delusion lasted long enough for me to do what has become an annual thing and cast on a Christmas sweater. Why I decide I only need two weeks to knit a sweater I don’t know. Well, it was actually doable in the past, but on previous years those last two weeks leading up to Christmas were filled solely with knitting and cheesy Christmas movies on cable. This year, I’m putting in a full day of work reformatting the patterns for individual sale (they are now all available separately), updating some of the more popular older patterns to the newer format without the watermark and trying to line up promotion opportunities for Nourishing Knits.

This is what I’ve accomplished since casting on Saturday. I don’t think I stand much of a chance of wearing it for Christmas. Even though this sweater is 10″ smaller in circumference and at a bit larger gauge than past sweaters I have serious doubts. But, there is value in knitting a pattern by someone else so am I am excited to take some time to do so whether or not it results in a sweater to wear for Christmas. I always learn something new, in this case it will be my first bottom-up raglan. Working a creative job can be a bit taxing at times too and pausing to knit a design by someone else gives one time to refill the well, something that I really like to do at the end of the year so I can kick off the next year with excitement and energy. What do you do to prep yourself for the start of a new year?

If any of you are thinking the yarn looks familiar - you are indeed correct!! This is the same yarn I used for last year’s “not Christmas” sweater, Aralia. Let us hope it is not cursed! It is going to grow up to be Aidez this time. Going through the gallery of projects it appears that it looks good both with zero to even a bit of negative ease and on through lots of ease which is just what I need to knit now. While I’m still wearing my Wisteria with 10″ of ease, it will look even more ridiculous next year, so I think this year is its last season for wearing.

The yarn is Cascade’s Eco+ yarn in a gorgeous red! I am making some changes. I’m between the 40″ and 44″ size right now and still shrinking so I’m doing a 40″ back and 44″ fronts. Given my bustiness I’m certain the extra coverage in front will be appreciated throughout my sizes. I am also making the popular change to knit it seamlessly which makes for a kind of crazy chart, but I really like being able to just keep following the chart and not having to think about which chart I need to go to with each stitch marker I encounter. There has been some discussion on the sleeves being too narrow, but my measurements look pretty good for the 40″ sleeves if my gauge in the round doesn’t tighten up significantly so I’m thinking I will do the sleeves up to the join on needles one size larger to eek out just a tiny bit more ease. I figure there is some wiggle room to just block them more severely here early this winter and less so as I continue to lose weight.

Okay, I fessed up to the holiday madness I inflict on myself, do you do the same in any way?

Also, I’ll be back on Friday to celebrate Jane Austen’s birthday with a giveaway and to kick off the Nourishing Knits blog book tour, so be sure to stop back by. You don’t want to miss out!