The Knitter Right Now

Do you ever reach moments in your knitting when you realize your game has shifted along the way? When you have managed to cross a threshold and can look back and realize that you are a different knitter than you were before?

I have discovered, for example, that I have somehow managed to become the sort of knitter who knits cabled aran pullovers on the morning bus commute because “it just has to get done.” If I were another knitter, perhaps the Me-knitter of Some Time in My Past, I might be spending nights agonizing over these cables and devoting truckloads of mental space to them.

But the Me-knitter of Right Now has about a zillion and one things to knit on, and was supposed to have finished this (beautiful, delicious) Portland pullover by now, because the me-knitter of Right Now is in a bargain to have another sweater done by mid-April for Elspeth (so she can knit me the same sweater and we can be twee and matchy like that when I go down to visit). And in theory this should still be fine given that the matchy-twee Elspeth sweater is far more simple and requires no cabling whatsoever, and that Elspeth will probably not care if I am frenetically knitting away on the last sleeve while I am in her presence and/or seconds before I depart her company.

But it does explain why the Me-knitter of Right Now has decided not to care that I messed up establishing the central cable panel on the first sleeve, and that instead of 2-3 inches of neat ribbing I have actually jumped right in and established the cable motif right from the cast-on edge.

It is still pretty. It is an attractive modified design feature. The Me-knitter of Right Now is moving on.

And trying to knit like the wind. We’ll see how it all goes.

Next up

Here we are, folks, a straight-up no-fooling-around Work In Progress post.

I’ve been having a bit of the knitting ennui this week, which I think comes from having 2 projects around the 75% done mark and needing something new to hold the interest. And I’ve been poring over my copy of A Fine Fleece and wanting to knit all of it (stay tuned for further plans here), and finally decided to heck with THIS I am casting something ON ALREADY.

So I did. ‘Portland’ is now in its beginning stages. It’s one of the sweaters that caught my eye first, and I had thought somehow that I would have knitted it already – several times last summer I was convinced that it would be next on deck.

But there is something about winter that flicks a cabled switch in one’s brain, and this feels good to have a project going that really involves sinking your teeth into it. I’m working this on some wooly-wool, the lanolin-sheepy-feeling sort of wool, worsted wool from Lismore Sheep Farm that I picked up in Nova Scotia a year and a half ago at Have A Yarn.

I am enjoying the heathery purple and how it is knitting up. So far the texture is great and even on the smallest size in the book, it’s going to leave me with a warm few inches of positive ease for a bit of roominess. I’ve decided I’m OK if this sweater turns out to be a little roomy. I’ll save the fitted for next time.

The only bummer about knitting this during my morning commute is that now the project back is sitting a few feet away from me, taunting me. I will try to remain strong until quitting time.

Happy Friday, dear knitters! May your knitting be awesome.