Happy New Year

Well, hello there.  Several months have passed since I  last posted, and you might be wondering 'Who the heck is this?'

It's me.  After a long hiatus,  pleas from a few of my faithful readers and learning that a brand new knitter was looking for my blog, made me decide  to start 2017 off with the resolution to post regularly.  Well, at least more regularly.  We leave next week for two months in Florida, which could put an end to my good intentions.   Finding time to post when the beach beckons?  We'll see.  But for now, I'm home, it's cold outside, so posting will happen.

What is on my needles?  2017 begins the way 2016 ended.  That is, with the same sweater on my needles. Like every cold Canadian, I have a wear-around-the-house sweater.  The one I currently wear, I knit, a few years ago.  I wear it almost daily once the temperatures drop and it is starting to look less than nice.  Enough motivation for me to knit a new around-the-house sweater.

What should I knit?  A cardigan, so I can throw it on over whatever not-warm-enough clothes I am wearing  on any given day.  Top down, so I can design on the fly and knit to fit.  

Into the stash I dove and came up with 6 balls of wool snatched form Sandy's sister Sue's most recent yarn give-away.  4 balls of Patons Classic tweed in taupe and off white, along with two balls of co-ordinating plains - one taupe and one in a shade of white.  The three colours  went well together but when I really looked at them, I realized it would be a pretty dull   sweater in those colours alone.  Not the greatest look for a Canadian winter.  We need bright and cheerful here in these northern climes to get us through some pretty  short,  dark days.

Back to the stash and it didn't take long to come up with several small balls of wildly bright and exciting colours.  Perfect.  Close to the face, a cheery, coloured yoke in garter stitch, followed by  the body and sleeves in the 'dulls'.  And this would also solve the problem of a potential yarn shortage.  I was pretty sure the 6 balls would suffice, but you never know.  With the colours added at the yoke and cuffs, I am confident I will not run out of yarn.

As always for me, when I knit pattern free, I make several starts.  Getting the colours lined up 'just right', getting the raglan increases ' just right',  getting the front neck increases 'just right' all took some ripping and re-starting.  Perhaps the equivalent of re-knitting a third of a sweater.  Without that I would most likely be finished by now.  Instead, here I am.

Below you can clearly see the steek stitches in centre front.  During the planning stage,  I tossed around the idea of knitting back and forth so there would be no need to steek  versus knitting in the round so there would be no need to purl. The latter won.  

This morning finds me with 15 1/2 completed inches. Five more inches to go before the ribbing. Then sleeves, and steek.   Let's see how far I can get before Florida.  This wool sweater is not invited down south.  If not complete before departure, it will go into hibernation until spring.