The knitting drought is over!

Update from the last post... most likely contender: double zinnias. Thank you for your entries!

Here's the thing. I haven't talked about knitting lately because I've had a bit of a dry spell. It was the introspective sort, brought on by the desolation of watching a sweater grind to a halt under the crushing suspicion that it Wasn't Going To Fit.

That and I was using what felt like rug yarn that I'd bought off Ebay because it looked so yummy in the picture. Anyone else spend a couple hundred hours lately with someone you picked from a picture? Feel let down? Like that.

Now let it be said that the recipient, my mom, is gracious about her jacket and expressed delight and even wore it, although I don't blame her if she doesn't wear it much and I know she's reading this, so now you know, Mother. But really, I kind of hate your jacket. It's just that I spent too much time with it, and there was the panicky re-order when I ran out of yarn that one time, and the stuff hurt my hands and then there was the panel I had to knit and graft into the back, and the panels in the sleeves, and the crocheted button band, and the extra crocheted panels in the yoke, and really, I'm just glad it's out of the house. It nearly crippled me. I'd want to start something else, but I knew it was squatting in the closet, balefully glaring at me, the most ungrateful UFO* I've ever had. I've had stuff on the needles for years that didn't bother me as much as this one did. But it's done now, and here it is along with the cardigan I made for my dad:

(*UFO: UnFinished Object)

My mom's jacket is Sonnet, from Knitty, and my dad's is from an issue of Creative Knitting a few years back. I still don't know why the neckline and sleeves on Sonnet came out so differently than the pictures in the pattern, but it's over now. My dad's turned out beautifully; it's knitted in Bernat Denim Style, which is warmer than I'd thought, but also heavier. I'd go with a wool next time.

Once it was done, things picked up. I started Coronet, finally, after printing that pattern four years ago, and then I started it again. Why? Because I used a ball of Simply Soft Shadows, which is great till you get about halfway up the head, and then you need your second ball. The second ball... you know, the one you're SURE you bought, and it's with the pattern. The pattern, the one you're SURE you printed off and can't find, so it must be with the ball. I still think they're out there somewhere, snuggled up together and staying warm, but now I have something that more resembles a nicely cabled headband. No problem, I'll just pick up another ball of yarn. The yarn that I suddenly can't find anywhere; apparently it's been discontinued. Yes, that's the one.

So I started it again, this time with the Baby Alpaca Grande. I should have given this yarn its own name; it was the first expensive yarn I bought, and I bought it at an alpaca farm on San Juan Island in 2004. It's lovely. It's super bulky (I didn't know from super bulky back then, I just thought it was pretty) and so soft. For four years it's sat in my closet and I would visit it and pet it and then put it back on its shelf. Finally, though, it's becoming Coronet, and about time.

In between I've made several hats on the Innovation machine. High time I reduced my stash. I've made some for gifts (three in Harding colors alone, just to figure out one that would fit my dad) and some for the Halfknits. Then my son drew my boss's name for the office Christmas party, and we all recalled the episode of The Office where Michael got a knitted oven mitt from Phyllis. Naturally, there was only one thing to do.

I used the Innovation and Wool of the Andes from Knitpicks. I cranked out a tube, cinched up one end, put in an afterthought thumb, made a tube out of black yarn, felted both, and then cut and sewed the black insert onto the red mitt. One more felting round, and it was done. That ugly seam is my misguided attempt to align the stitches. I should have just turned the piece sideways and sewn it on that way.

It opens up the possibilities of all sorts of felted tubes and bags, though. I need to get back to knitting panels on the Innovation, and then the sky's the limit!