Sweater Season = New Projects!

The arrival of fall is a joyous occasion for any avid knitter. It's a season of wool and bundling up by fires and sipping warm drinks. Unless you live in Florida like me and even your Christmas day is usually 78 - 85 degrees F, lol. I can't help but be influenced by the hope of cooler weather that surrounds me though, so I also fall victim to the desire to knit lots of things this time of year. Add to the equation that I haven't been able to knit much in the past 4 months and you've got me really jones-ing. So when Andi Satterlund announced her fall knit along for this year along with a new cardigan pattern, I was all into it. I love her fall knit along :) I've participated the past 3 years, so I had to keep things going. This time of year always sees a slight slow down in obligations that keep me from knitting and sewing, so it's a good time to join in a nice online challenge (unlike the summer OAL which always ends up being crazy busy for me but I stubbornly insist on participating anyway, lol). Since I haven't had much to post lately, I figured I'd bring you up to speed with what I have going on in the background chez moi.

 This is where I'm at with the knit along thus far. This is Andi's new pattern, the Blaster cardigan and it's been smooth sailing so far. I tried my darned-est to make this sweater from stashed yarn, I really did, but I am seriously lacking in sweater amounts of DK and sport weight yarn in my stash. It came down to only one option that I was extremely un-thrilled about (plus it was a textured yarn so it would've looked really strange) and I'm to the point in my creating that I don't want to spend all that time making things that I don't love and therefor won't wear. Given that I just had my epic-ly huge estate sale and sold a ton of yarn, I felt justified in splurging on enough nice yarn to make a new sweater immediately (i.e. it wouldn't sit in my stash for who knows how long). I'm actually pretty proud of my justification, lol. See, I sold a bunch of cheapy acrylic yarn that I got at thrift stores and made a little over the amount that I paid for this new yarn, so I basically just traded the cheapo acrylic for the good stuff :) This yarn is Filatura di Crosa Zara in a bright pumpkin orange and it's fabulous. I worked with this yarn years ago as a new knitter, but I completely forgot how nice it is to work with. I adore the feel of it on my hands so knitting this is a real pleasure. I'm excited to keep going on it!

I've also swatched for a new Christmas project. Normally I wouldn't reveal this now, but the recipient already knows this one is coming. I've decided to make my mom a sweater for Christmas :) She really liked my Ginny Cardigan so when I found a great deal on some appropriate yarn in her favorite color, I pounced and I've had the yarn waiting for months for me to discuss style choices and fit before I start. The yarn is Isaac Mizrahi Merino Blend (now discontinued - thus the sweet price) and it's a 50/50 merino/acrylic blend. My mom likes the yarn feel and I feel better about making something for someone else with it since it's machine washable. I will confess that I've only done the swatch since I'm making the Blaster cardigan in the time limit, but this sweater will be the next project I pick up.

I also have made nice-ish progress on my Alecia Beth cardigan. It's fingering weight so I'm much more lenient on myself with how long it's taking me on this sweater considering how little crafting time I've had this year. I'm past the waist on the body, so that's good :) It'll get a little work in between other projects, but there's really no rush on it.

So that's my latest projects! I'm knitting away, but I've also done a bit of sewing (I've got a shirt waiting for pictures, a costume that needs complete reworking, and a shirt I'm making as a gift this week) so I hope to be posting a bit more often soon :)

Yay for sweaters!