Slow and Fast

I obviously go through many different moods while knitting. From week to week or month to month I change my mind about what I want to be working on and for how long. This always shapes the decisions of my next project. This time, however, it was something quite different. I received my sweater quantity of Madelinetosh Tosh DK (formerly Worsted) in the color Kale from The Loopy Ewe and I just *had* to cast on with it that same day. That rarely happens to me, but this color is just perfect for the Swing (rav link) pattern and I knew that’s what it had to become, even though I originally bought it for another pattern altogether. Of course, my life being not as easy as I’d like it to be, this pattern is written for a true-to-heavy worsted weight and Tosh DK (now aptly named) is definitely nowhere near as heavy. Which means that I had to cast on a heck of a lot more stitches to get the correct size. And, to make my life even easier, this whole jacket is knit in rib, which really sort of sucks as I am no fan of the purl stitch. Yes, I realize I never make things easy on myself! However, it *is* coming out extremely good and I’m loving the color and the yarn in the pattern:

I think it’s looking very pretty in all that rib. And here’s a close-up view:

Hopefully this won’t take forever, but it’s already been very slow going. I only have 6 inches done and still have quite a bit left to go, though those 6 inches already took me 4 days to do, so who knows how long this will really take? I’ll have to see, though I really hope to be done with it before I go to Stitches West at the end of February. 🙂

Of course before the *must cast on a sweater in this yarn right now* mood struck me, I was working on some quick to knit projects! One of which was a pair of fingerless gloves that I’ve been using all the time when the weather warmed up. Now that it’s colder again I’m back to my leather ones until probably April… or until Stitches West since California is so much warmer than here! In either case, these fingerless gloves are absolutely to-die-for soft! Made with one of my all-time favorite yarns, Fiberphile MCN, I felt like I was in heaven when I slipped these gloves on the first time. Not only are they ridiculously luscious against the skin, the color is just amazing as well:

The pattern does get a bit lost in the yarn (especially in pictures) but that’s because I probably should have picked a tad bit of a lighter color. But I honestly don’t care! I just think these turned out with a bit of Wow! in them that I love. Plus, the color is amazingly beautiful and just has a glow to it. They were also an extremely quick knit (took 4 days) and they also only took 169 yards of sock yarn! Basically that means I still have enough left of my skein to make another pair if I wanted to. Not too shabby.

Pattern – Snow On Cedars Mitts by Anne Hanson (rav link | project link)
Yarn – Fiberphile Merino Cashmere Sock in Dark Amber (rav link | store I used)
Needle – US2 (2.75mm)
Cast on – January 10, 2010
Cast off – January 14, 2010
Modifications – None

I hope everyone is keeping warm out there! It’s starting to get in the high 20’s again this week, so hopefully I won’t be too cold. We’re house hunting this weekend as well and really hope that we will like the townhouse we’re off to see on Sunday. No matter what people tell you, house hunting has been no fun and I really want to find something we love (and can afford!) soon!