Here is how far I’ve gotten with the sweater. I still have to knit the neckline and the rest of the body and figure out what I want to do with the cuffs. It’s not an incredible amount of knitting left, but now I’m feeling like it’s time for a break. The Coast Ripple afghan is calling to be finished.
My formerly one-armed sweater now has a second sleeve in the works.
Now I am trying to decide how long I want the sleeve, and whether I should end with ribbing or some other style of cuff.
I realized something the other day. This year, there are five Mondays in the month of November. Monday is my regular day off (I work 10-hour days from Tuesday to Friday), so that’s five days this month that I don’t have to go in to work.
Also, Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving, and the day after Thanksgiving are all state holidays in November. Tomorrow is the last day that I have to work this month. Times like these make me even more thankful for my full-time permanent salaried position with the state of California.
All of these days off = more time to knit, or crochet, or sew, and do as I please.
I picked up stitches around the second armhole and have now started knitting the second sleeve.
A big advantage of knitting a sweater from the top down is that you can try it on as you knit.
Like so:
In which I take a selfie in my pajamas. And that weird bump on my belly is the drawstring cord of the pants.
I spent a good part of the day knitting the ribbing on the cuff.
When I got to what seemed like wrist-length, I bound off the sleeve.
And got this:
I’m not thrilled with the edge of that sleeve. I’ll probably frog all that ribbing and do something else later. (Oh! Maybe bracelet-length sleeves with a crocheted edge?) In the meantime, I’m going to start the second arm. I’m pretty sure a couple of my neighbors were wondering what I was doing out on the porch, taking selfies in what appeared to be a one-armed sweater.
Okay, I’ll be honest: I got bored after crocheting a few more rows on the Coast Ripple afghan. So I set that aside and looked at what else remained in the WIP pile.
There was this:
This is a knitted top-down sweater that I started about two years ago. The yarn is Berrocco Lustra, 50% Peruvian wool and 50% Tencel Lyocell.
As you can see, it’s missing an arm, a neckline, the rest of the body,
and a cuff.
I think I might accomplish finishing one cuff today.
Remember when I was knitting this sweater last month? I got tired of knitting in the round and set it aside. I thought I should finish it, but there wasn’t any joy in the process.
I started and finished other projects, and in the meantime, that partially completed sweater remained sleeveless with half a torso. It was taking up space in both my living room and in my conscience.
Today I made a decision. I had to be completely honest with myself, and the truth was I didn’t care about finishing that sweater. And even if I did, I knew I wouldn’t wear it. There was just no real reason for me to keep knitting when my heart wasn’t in it. I had no real love for the sweater.
I ended up doing this:
Goodbye, sweater that I would never have worn anyway. Goodbye, hours and hours of knitting around and around in stockinette stitch.
In under five minutes, I managed to unravel the whole thing into a couple of flat-bottomed balls.
And you know what? I’m totally okay with it. In fact, I feel less burdened. That sweater was one more piece of clutter that I could remove from my life with no dire consequences.
Now if I could only tackle the hundreds of other pieces of clutter in the rest of my home…
365 Days Handmade 