7/3/12 - I’ve been wanting to start this project for some time now - it’s lovely, will be hugely functional, and I’ll actually get to wear it after I’m finished, since it is currently season appropriate! However, I put a massive hold on starting new projects to clear out the ones that I currently had on the needles. Right now, shocking as it may be, I have nothing on the needles. Truly, nothing. I’m still embroidering the front of my Mary Poppins, but the knitting is done. That will continue to be my “in front of the TV or at knitting group” project, while this one will rapidly become my “in the dark” project for the movies, since it’s just a k4, k2tog-yo-k-yo-ssk pattern that I can easily do in the dark.

I’m already making a few modifications. To start with, I didn’t get the gauge. But that’s not the end of the world and cotton stretches/grows. I’m just half an inch short, so I’m making the 38” version, which I know would be a little big on me, so it should balance out. I got gauge using size 8 needles, but I liked the look and feel of the fabric better on the size 7s. I am also, of course, not working this flat but in the round. In the round kicks flat’s ass every single time.

I’m nicknaming this one air bubbles because the openwork pattern in this blue yarn so deeply reminds me of the air bubbles in a fish tank!

7/29 - This is going along well. I did drop down to Size 5s to make it just a little more figure fitting around the waist, and when I tried it on last night, I could tell it was going to fit perfectly. I’m now working on 2 cotton-based tanks that are so easy, I can work on them without paying any attention! This is making me realize that there are really more projects that I can work on without having to look than there are projects that I have to constantly watch, like colourwork or cables. This would be much further along - maybe even finished - if I hadn’t suddenly realized that I had to whip out a Baby Link outfit for the baby shower! This will probably wind up coming along with me on vacation to North Carolina, although I am tempted to work only on my Ravelympics gear…still, I want things to be finished, not have 50 different projects on the needles!

9/23 - Finished! Okay, to be fair, this would have been finished MONTHS earlier except for two things. I was flying along on it while I was in North Carolina, just knitting away, but as soon as I hit the sleeve and collar decreases, I had to pull away from it to really look at my math and make sure everything was lining up, since I did this in the round instead of just following the pattern. That messed me up when I tried to do the front - for some reason, the first few times I tried to do it, the motifs for the two different stitch patterns were not matching up at all. It took me some time to work that out, I basically just had to sit down and concentrate on it instead of just trying to stagger through. But there was one other massive stumbling block that occurred on vacation that slowed down my knitting productivity and caused me to complete nothing the month of August:

I FELL IN LOVE.

That’ll make your knitting take a hit. It was so unexpected and so amazing…I didn’t want to touch anything thing my love’s hands and face. We stayed cuddled for pretty much the entire month of August, even though he loves to watch me knit and has already requested something. And so I cast aside everything I had taken with me on vacation and just gave in to him and this.

Now, it’s finished and, as usual, I think it’s one of the greatest things I’ve ever completed. It had a good bath, since it got dragged to the park and the beach and the movies and restaurants, and now it’s drying. I’m always amazed at how awesome projects look when you just do a simple single crochet around the neck edging of a sweater. It pulls the entire thing together! I used a size I/9 crochet hook (I do wish Casey would make it so that you could do needle AND hook sizes in a project, since a lot of knitting projects incorporate both). I was really amazed that it used up so little yarn! I have a skein and a half left…probably it will be used for some baby project, since that’s my entire focus these days!