Stilwell

I had a very lovely long weekend (I've been off since Wednesday), and I put a lot of knitting time in. This is what my Stilwell looked like a week ago from today:

By last Thursday, I had progressed to this:

I finished the sweater on Friday (although I didn't weave ends in until after blocking). I discovered that I don't have a stopper for my kitchen sink, and I didn't see the point of filling up the tub for a sweater. Therefore, I pulled out our cooler, wiped it out, and gently washed the sweater in it. I'm not sure if I should feel resourceful or hickish lol.

I pinned it out on the blocking mats and promptly waited forever for it to dry. I don't know why there are stripes in the sweater; they are not visible when it's dry.

Finally, after the application of a fan, the sweater dried today. :D

I knit the sweater out of Jo Sharpe Silkroad DK Tweed. It took a little over 4 skeins of the blue (and I mean a very little over 4) and less than 1 of the white. I used a US9 needle for the stockinette sections and a US11 for the colorwork. In retrospect, I probably could have gotten away with using a US10.5 for the colorwork because it's a tad bit loose. Not bad for my first raglan sweater and my first fair isle sweater.

I have made quite a bit of progress on another knitting project, but I can't show you until after I finish it and give it to the recipient (a blog reader). It's supposed to be a Christmas gift, but I seriously doubt I'll be able to hold on to it that long. Since I'm nearly done, I'll be lucky to keep it for another week. I've also made a point to pick up reading again so that I have an escape from the stress of life. I've decided to reread a favorite childhood series of mine, starting with All Creatures Great And Small by James Harriot. So far, it's just as lovely as I remembered.

An FO and Startitis

I finally have another FO. I finished my Hitchhiker Scarf, made from my one lonely skein of Wollmeise.

I've been teaching my friend Kristie to knit, which has lead to a very serious case of startitis. I recently started the Palouse mitts using my skein of Madelinetosh Sock in Green with Envy. I got it from one of the Loopy Ewe clubs from last year.

I've also started Stilwell. I bought the yarn for this sweater (Jo Sharp Silkroad DK tweed) almost 2 years ago. I managed to hide that yarn purchase from DH until I started the sweater last week. :D

I'm a little bit concerned about the tension in the fair isle section, but I'm choosing to ignore that voice in my head for now. It's good practice for learning to ignore the rest of the voices anyway.

Annoying sidenote: while looking at the picture above just now, I realized that there is a glaring error in the top section of the fair isle. I can't believe that I didn't even notice it until just now! It's bad enough and obvious enough that I can't let it go. I'll have to figure out where I went wrong too. Boohiss.

I also started a hat in an effort to placate the startitis (it didn't work since I started Stilwell after I started the hat). It's the painted forest hat on size 15 needles. I can't remember what the yarn is-berroco hip hop or something like that. I bought it when I was a brand new knitter. My wrists hurt for 2 days after I worked on it last, so who knows if I'll finish it. I may just do one row every now and then until it's done.

Since I'm doing a lot of work related to music right now, I got my I Am RadioU shirt today. RadioU is a freaking fantastic Christian rock radio station. You get the shirt for donating to them during their Unleash the Music fundraiser. You can stream them online or use the app for iphone & android if you'd like to listen to RadioU (they are an actual radio station-90.5 in OKC-check their site to see if you can pick them up where you live). So here I am in my shirt today, although it's a bit big:

My year of concerts continues on-this Thursday the Rock and Worship Roadshow is coming to OKC. I'm most excited about seeing Disciple, Group 1 Crew, and Hawk Nelson, but MercyMe, Jars of Clay, Trip Lee, and Matt Maher will all be there. The best part is that you get to see all of those bands for $10. The drawback is that it's open seating and I had a bit of crowd anxiety at an event I went to on Friday. I think I'll be ok this time though. I'm excited! I love concerts so much.

\m/