twitchyKnits

I have finished the back part of my Gathering of Cypress sweater. I’m super excited about this because I was afraid I would end up being sick of the pattern before I got it done, and it would end up in a paper bag somewhere with a lot of yarn and never ever get finished. But no, I am a knitting machine! The cable pattern is interesting enough that I could probably just crank that out for hours upon hours without complaint. The color in the picture below isn’t quite right. The picture on the project page is a much more accurate shade of green, but this is the only finished picture I have.

My only frustration with the pattern thus far is that I knit the rows for the shoulder-shaping THREE TIMES before I finally got it right. Somehow, since earlier shaping had had only one set of numbers, I got it into my head that the later shaping’s numbers applied to all sizes as well. Fun fact: They do not! I used the small size the first time, ripped it, re-read the section, reknit, then realized I’d mixed up the small sections numbers, and not actually even used the medium size. Third try I finally got it right only by virtue of sitting there with the book in my lap and staring at it so hard I thought it was going to burst into flames. Arrrrgh.

Either way, I have conquered the back half of the sweater. I feel very accomplished because there’s only the front half (with lots of fiddly stuff—expect swearing) and two small-sized sleeves to do! Woohoo!

A little math—it took three and a half balls for the back half. So seven for the front and back pieces, let’s say two for each sleeve, and another for the collar, i-cord, and finishing. That’s twelve of the fifteen balls I ordered, so I may have to come up with some small stashbusting projects to get rid of that extra or give it to someone who didn’t buy enough.

My goal is to knit my entire stash before I go off to basic in almost exactly four months. Whether or not I can do it is anyone’s guess, but I plan on trying REALLY HARD. Wish me luck!