All Those Smiles

Because of your smile, you make life more beautiful.
-Thich Nhat Hahn

It feels like I'm blogging more than I am. What happens is that every other time I go to work, I stay overnight for 30 hours. So what is really two days, feels like one. I finally had a somewhat-less-than-completely-crazy call night last night, which means that this afternoon post-call I was able to do useful things. Like go to the gym, read a delightfully trashy novel, and wind yarn.

I really do have a big NaKniSweMoDo post half-written to fill you in on all the sweaters I'm making. So many that I ran out of baskets to hold my Works-In-Progress and discovered that one of my many, many tote bags is actually perfect, and even color-coordinated.

But as I ramble, I know you all want to know who got lucky and won the yarn. Since my Peace Fleece good fortune was random, I went to the random number generator at random.org. Good fortune knows no boundaries.

The winner of the Briggs and Little was Cheryl:

Cheryl said...

Something that made me smile and laugh was the Valentine's card that I got from someone who I work with.It's the little day to day kindnesses and shared experiences along the way that mean the most to building friendships. And laughter, which I did when I first read the envelope.It did not have my name on it, it said, PUT THE KNITTING NEEDLES DOWN!!!!! Now, this is a friendship I hope will last a long time. HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO ALL.

And the winner of the Peace Fleece is KC.

KC said...

African violets made me smile.
My boyfriend loves African violets so I got him one last year for Valentines Day. Over the summer I rooted several cuttings so we now have them all over the house. This year for Valentines Day he took me to a garden center and we got three more so we can fill our house with color and little symbols of love. I smile every time I see one.

Aren't they lovely stories? Thanks to everyone for sharing their happy thoughts last week.

The winners should email me at knittingunderway AT gmail DOT com so we can work out minor details like mailing addresses, and Peace Fleece selections.

One Down

You have to walk carefully in the beginning of love;
the running across fields into your lover's arms
can only come later when you're sure they won't laugh if you trip.
-Jonathan Carroll

Since my regular photographer is off serving our country, making the world safe for democracy, and getting himself rather beat up for the sake of wearing a different color belt (boys will be boys), I had to take my own finished object photos. (Do note the quotation above; taking my own photos here is akin to tripping.)

I tried . . . In spite of my bad hair day . . . Outdoors, indoors . . . Left, right, center . . . And then I called it good enough for a photo montage.Hopefully you can get a vague idea of just how great this sweater is.

Cable Down Raglan
Pattern: Stephanie Japel from Interweave Knits, best of, among others
Yarn: mystery wool bought off eBay circa 2001 - I believe this might be my oldest stash yarn!
Needles: US 7
Notes: Great pattern, fun to knit top down. No mods - just kept trying it on!
Best Thing About This Project: It's a toss-up between finally putting this albatross of the stash has been put to good use, and finally buying a scale to measure my yarn.

In fact, I was so happy with this, my first finished sweater of NaKniSweMoDo, that I immediately cast about on the interwebs for my next projects. I fell in love with Acer after seeing Margene's version and Sarah's version on the same day. So I bought some Beaverslide. Always wanted to try that. Then I saw that Fiddlesticks Knitting (some of my favorite Canadians) was having a special offer to celebrate the Blooming Cardigan on the cover of IK. Of course I had to celebrate with them. But then they arrived, and I immediately saw the problem: Am I predictable, or what? These colors are just a little too close. So I bought some Peace Fleece. And that's a story for another day . . . Stay tuned for a big give-away this week!

What Do Your Sweaters Say?

To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.
-John Henry Newman

I'm in. NaKniSweMoDo (National Knit a Sweater Month Dodecathalon) here I come!

I do well with goals, after all . . . and I've been planning all week. Between my actual day (and night) job, that is. It's been busy - more on that later. But before I dig deep and put all my big January goals and plans out there on the forefront, let me show you why I'm so inspired.

You may recall the saga of the Second Anniversary Sweater. I finally got my colors and cast on. But then it sat there . And sat there. And sat there. I just wasn't inspired. It was hard on my hands, a non-intuitive cable pattern, and too bulky. It didn't say anything approaching "Happy Anniversary."

So then I cast around and reconsidered. And I realized that my previous objections to the Anniversary Sweater were not insurmountable. I know how to add a sleeve cap. I have a measuring tape (it needs to be longer). And I do, in fact, have the perfect yarn in my stash.
Isn't this a perfect fabric? (The color is more of a darker, true navy.) Doesn't it make your heart sing? Doesn't it say "I love you so much I knit an entire ribbed/cabled sweater in cotton on size 6 needles?"

Too bad I had to order another 5 balls of off-white yarn for the contrasting stripe . . .