Right around the corner

Well, it's a new week, and I must say I'm quite excited about it - despite the fact that I'm exhausted after getting home from the wedding of my brother-in-law's brother at 1 am last night! For one thing, the weather is getting slightly warmer - but the real reason is that I have a little break from school due after Tuesday. I can't wait! I can really use the week and a half off.

Since I last posted, I've made decent progress on both projects. Well, great progress on the shrug not so great progress on the vintage sweater. Did I mention that I'm just loving working on the shrug? Here's why:

1. I looooove the yarn - it's so soft, easy to work with, and its hand-dyed-ness is just lovely.

2. It knits up quickly thanks to size 9 needles

3. These aren't just any ol' 9 needles - it's my first pair of Addi turbos and it's such a pleasure to work with. Before I had been using mostly Bryspun circulars which I also quite like (they are certainly much cheaper) - but the Addis are just magic

4. Easy pattern but I've learned enough along the way to make it interesting (first time with an M1 increase and knitted cast-on)

I haven't made nearly as much progress on the vintage sweater. The size 2 needles and k1p1 ribbing are making me nuts. I think it'll be better once I pass the ribbing part - more challenging but at least a little more interesting plus I can switch to size 3 needles. Not a huge improvement but an improvement nonetheless.

In other news, I bought the Yarn Harlot's new book: "Knitting Rules".


I wasn't planning on purchasing it just because I feel like I've blown my monthly budget on knitting related objects (KROs) - but on Saturday I was sitting in a book store trying to avoid the rain, saw it on the shelf, picked it up, and couldn't put it down. How's that for advertising?

Well, it's fabulous. I haven't read the whole thing yet but I've read enough of it to get a sense of it. Her personality and voice come through loud and clear - very witty, engaging. It's like having a knitting budding sitting next to you. It's probably one of the few things that I don't mind giving up knitting time for. Aside from having incredible insight into the hearts and minds of us, the knitting-obsessed (and I take the liberty of using the 1st person plural here because if you too are an avid knitting-blog-reader and/or writer, you've most likely crossed the line from from hobby to passion), she provides all sorts of "recipes" for patterns (e.g. hats, shawls, etc.) that I'm sure will be quite useful. So, definitely check it out.

Well, enough procrastinating. I've got to get back to my real job!