Almost a Cardi-carrying member

I’m torn.

The whole “knitting carrot” is failing in the face of more interesting knitting, but I’m trudging towards the Ribby Cardi finish line. Another hour of knitting, and both sleeves will be finished. If we watch a movie tonight, I think the collar and bands will also find themselves complete.

Despite what my Ravelry queue says, the next two projects on my list are “Muir” and “Large Rectangle with Center Diamond Pattern” (from Victorian Lace Today). I picked up some lace yarn at the show, and want to (a) write reviews of the yarns, and (b) knit these shawls.

It’s not the Cardi part of the Ribby Cardi; it’s the sleeves.

I thought I was being super-smart, and I was. In theory.

First, I got out my handy-dandy graph paper and charted out the sleeve cap so that my sleeve was certain to come out in pattern. (Yes, I know it’s ribbing. Yes, I know I have OCD about this stuff.) This is a necessity for me, since my sleeve caps don't need shortening, but the sleeves always do, and I don't like the guesswork of "shorten or lengthen here" before a shaped sleeve cap. Cap first, then work out the rest, I say.

Next, I cast on both sleeves at the same time. I knit the sleeve caps flat (from the top down) to where they hit the underarm. Then, I put them in the round. So now, we have two sleeves on two circs, top-down. This all adds up to a tangly mess if you’re not paying attention. Doubly so if (say) one of your balls decides to throw up everywhere. This project stays home, safely in a place where it won’t get jostled around.

So far, the sleeves have taken me a couple of evenings of knitting, and it looks like I’ll be able to finish the knitting tonight. This is real growth for me, since 90% of my sweaters get held up at the sleeves. It seems I have an aversion to knitting sleeves, but a need to wear them. I am a complicated woman.

Andrew is totally jazzed about Jasmin 2008- especially the finishing things list. As I was trying on my sleeves, he pointed out that I could blast through the Sweater Formerly Known As Zak’s (SFKAZ) in a week and have it completed, too. That would be two sweaters done in a month, he pointed out emphatically.

While that’s true, and Jasmin 2008 likes to finish things, she also wants to knit what she wants to knit. Especially after Stitches. Jasmin 2008 laid out all of her purchases on the dining room table, to inspire her. While I didn’t overbuy, and I certainly limited my purchases to only things that I LOVED, there is a lot of inspiration laying out there. Being beautiful. Tempting me to stray from finishing back to starting.

I think what is most tempting is that I’m not enjoying the sleeve process, which is as tedious as it is smart. I’ll admit that this will leave me the least amount of finishing, which I may dislike even more than knitting sleeves. So, again, smart. But tedious.

The SFKAZ isn’t half as tedious, because when I cast the sleeves on simultaneously (over eight years ago), I didn’t bother to do so in the round. Though I’m not looking forward to attaching sleeves to shoulders and doing the two long, cuff-to-armpit-to-sweater-bottom seams, this sweater has the potential of being an awesome kicking-around sweater. Lucky for me, the formerly intended recipient of this sweater wasn’t much bigger than I am now, and sleeves that aren’t finished are easily shortened.

Hopefully tomorrow you'll be reading about my latest lace shawl.

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