It’s my birthday month! That means I get to reach into the jar of poker chips at Green Planet Yarn and see what discount I get. I know I will at least get 20%, but the chance at getting 40, 80 or 100% is so exciting. I pulled a 20% this time, but I’ve pulled 40% twice before. Anyway, I decided to redo my Vivian because the knitpicks yarn I used is pilling like CRAZY. I’ve tried to trim it, but it is really bad. And it was such a fun knit – I just hope I can do it twice!

I bought Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Bulky, a 100% Superwash Merino Wool in the Cedar colorway. I’m not 100% confident of my color choice now. What do you think?  The yearn is beautiful, especially outside in natural light.  But in the house, the colors are reading a lot more yellow which is pushing it very camouflage army green.  I hope will like it, 9 skeins is no small investment and I had the shop wind all the balls!  No going back now… no starting tonight for me either 😦  I ran into a little snag after finally getting to sit down and play with my new yarn.  I can’t find the pattern!

This just happened to me two weeks ago.  I was back from stitches, so happy with my Tosh DK purchase.  I had Jared Flood’s Koolhaas hat in mind to make fo me.  (Out of all the hat’s I’ve made, I never made myself one.)  I go to the computer to print out a fresh new copy and can’t find it anywhere!  I’m so bummed.   I’ll just have to re-buy I guess.

Speaking of Jared have to check out Jared Flood’s blog right now, especially if you are interested in spinning and yarn production and photography (his photos are stunning).  He’s giving a “tour” if you will through the yarn production mill of his new line.  Fascinating and beautiful! The green yarn in part 3 of 5 is gorgeous.  I wish they had that in bulky weight at my LYS!!

(ps.  thanks for the yarn photo shoot Paul)

I completed the shoulders and started on the hood this weekend.  The picture above shows my progress thus far.  I’m 25 rows into it.  The shoulders were by far the trickiest part.  Somehow I was off by a few stitches here and there.  I improvised to keep the decreases in a place that looked logical.  I really didn’t want to have to rip out, but was prepared to do so since I don’t consider myself good enough to improvise and have it work. But to my surprise, it seems to have turned out ok.  I had the right number of stitches when I finished the shoulders, PHEW!  If you are working on the shoulders of this sweater and you come to the part that says “work in pattern as set” then make sure to do sssk’s and p3tog’s instead of just k’s and p’s.   I consider myself leveled up after this shoulder experience 🙂  That means the Vivian has leveled my knitting skills up twice now!  Talk about diving into the deep end of the pool!

Cool Moon Yoga Knits had a post today with a poem about knitting and how it heals which reminded me what propelled me start this project I thought was impossible.  I started this sweater the day I had to put my dear old cat down after 15 long years of being there for me.  I just wanted to knit to help me through mourning, it’s such a healing process.  There’s something about the repetative motions, that lead to a creation of fabric, that is really grounding and statisfying.  Now I will always remember him when I wear this sweater .

I finished the right sleeve this weekend, realized I had one extra cable in the left sleeve and ripped that out and fixed it too. I followed the directions and carefully attached the sleeves. On to the yoke and then the hood, the trickiest parts. I hope I’m doing it right. I can’t believe how fast this project has gone thus far. It’s been fairly straight forward until now. Can I finish it before I start the Mystery Bag KAL #2 on Oct 1st? Yikes!

I finished the left sleeve already – YAY 🙂 I stayed up late last night knitting it while watching the Biggest Loser. Oh man, the stories of these contestants are SO sad this year. Tears were streaming down my face as I watched. Very motivating though. I’m not overweight, but I am complete mush right now, no muscle tone to speak of. I used to be pretty active, hiking, and playing volleyball a few times a week, but ever since I dislocated my knee for the second time I’ve been a lump, spending all my free time sitting and knitting. I sit all day at work too. The only actively moving time I have is when I’m chasing my 2 year old around the house. I wonder if I could knit while riding a stationary bike… I’m so addicted to knitting that the thought of taking 30m to 1h of free time away from knitting is really difficult. I downloaded iFitness for my iPod touch last night after the show in hopes that it will helpe me start working out again (sans my knitting needles). I REALLY need to gain strength in my left quad and gluts so that I can play volleyball again and not hurt my knee again!!

I am excited that the good TV shows are starting up again. This week I’ll be tuning in to So You Think You Can Dance, The Office, Parks and Recreation, and Project Runway (or I’ll be recording them at least so that I can watch after my little one goes to sleep). That’s a heck of a lot of TV time… I’ll definitely be knitting or working out while watching. Somehow knitting justifies the mindless time sync of watching TV.

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I’m in love with this sweater. So far it’s been my absolute favorite project. I bought a bunch of new patterns from Ysolda Teague that I can’t wait to knit as well. She just came out with the Vine Yoke sweater which is beautiful and very interesting because it’s knit up sideways. She put together a package called “Whimsical Little Knits 2” that are quick to knit and gorgeous – and whimsical of course. They will make beautiful Christmas presents!!

The sleeves are extra long with room for the palm of the hand.

I also bought a very cute little print that I found on Etsy because I couldn’t help it. Check out Laura Gregg’s work. I ordered the Knitting Nerd. It’s a purple, girl bat, knitting… what more could I want.

I just might have to change my Ravelry name to something like Knitting Nerd… maybe I’ll steal an idea from my friend Marisa (QuiltOkatu) and call myself KnitOkatu (I’m probably spelling that wrong)! HAHA. Ok, I wouldn’t really do that… but, maybe nerd in another language. How do you say nerd in Italian?