Turns out I’m not quite ready to sink my teeth into the 100-Year Sweater quite yet.  Perhaps I’ve given it too daunting of a name?

Thanks for all your comments on the contrast color.  I’ve decided to go with the purple.

However, I just haven’t felt myself in the mood to cast-on yet.  In the meantime I suddenly found myself with the urge to whip up some quick stash-busting type projects.

I knit this hat in a couple of evenings:

Leafprints Hat knit from Himalayan Wool/Silk yarn

I think I could have finished this in one evening but what I thought was a bulky weight turned out to be more of a worsted and I ended up with leaves that didn’t pop and more than 1/2 the yarn left over so I frogged and re-knit with two strands of the yarn held together.  I like it much better now and it just needs a pom-pom for me to consider it finished.

I also cast-on for a Daybreak Shawl in two different Noro yarns.  I’m knitting the small size but using a DK weight yarn.  I don’t really have a plan for how this will turn out.  I just liked the colors and fingers crossed I have enough yarn because I got this at on sale and I don’t think they have any more at the LYS.

Not my usual color-scheme.

Also in my excitement over the pretty colors I forgot that Noro yarn is all striped (regardless of how it is skeined) and did not remember until I started winding the yarn into a ball.  I was imagining a variegated colorway for some reason so I’m hoping that I’ll like the scarf in the end even though it won’t be quite how I envisioned it originally.

In other news my cousin/bff Adrienne gave me a lovely early birthday present:

Mmm…delicious handspun…

We estimate there are about 500 yards of something resembling a worsted weight of this yarn.  I am planning for a stripey sweater and will be sorting the stash in search of a worthy match for it.

I am extremely excited at the prospect of wearing Adrienne’s handspun-for-me yarn in sweater form.

The problem with having only one or two projects on the go at a time is that when you come to a stopping place on a project or finish a project, you don’t have anything on the needles.

I haven’t had much time for knitting this summer and most of the knitting that I have been able to fit in has been the of the mostly-mindless variety.

I always try to keep one mindless project and one more complicated project going at all times so that I always have something to pick up.

Last week I finished my shawlette (sorry, no fo pics yet) and was ready for the colorwork yoke of Freyja to take over the complex knitting slot.  This left my mindless needles empty.  Completely empty.  I have been working all week to get something started to fill the mindless knitting void but have had no luck so far.

In desperation I cast on for a pair of socks for Lou but it is not the same as a long comfortable sweater project.

I’ve knit much more than this.  I’m about 5″ into the cuff

After much deliberation I decided to make a 100-Year Sweater for my next mostly-mindless-sweater project.  It is to commemorate 100 years of Elizabeth Zimmermann.  I am doing the Fair Isle Yoke Sweater with Henley Neck from Knitting Around.  This project will include my very first steek which I think makes it an excellent commemorative project.

Even with the most difficult hurdle of decision making out of the way I am having a hard time getting to the cast-on.  I hate swatching but spent all of yesterday afternoon knitting multiple swatches to get the colorwork straightened out for this new project.  I have narrowed it down to two choices:

Okay, I didn’t even knit a whole swatch.  Imagine that these are one swatch please.

The main difference is in the trim color which will be echoed at the cuffs and hem.

I can’t decide whether I like the purple or light brown better.  Please let me know which you think is better in the comments.  I am really at a stand-still on this until I decide because of course the contrast-trim is the very first row!

Aargh!

…I met a bear

I was on a run on the Brotherhood Bridge Trail with Maggie and Oso.  For those unfamiliar with the area Brotherhood Bridge Trail is sort of like a greenbelt.  It goes about 2 miles through the forest and has a trailhead at each end.

The main Brotherhood Bridge Trail is actually paved and dogs must be kept on leash there.  I don’t like to run with both the dogs on leash so I decided to take the narrow dirt “horse trail” which parallels the Brotherhood Bridge Trail for most of the route (you have to cut back onto the main trail to cross a creek) where dogs are allowed to run loose.

We were about 1/3 of the way into our run when the dogs suddenly got very excited.  Oso took off into the bushes to my left and when I looked in that direction I saw a black bear!  The bear was about 30 feet away in a tree but only a couple of feet off the ground.  It looked like a young bear, maybe a yearling, but not a cub (phew!).  It was adorable!  These black bears are tricky because it is very difficult to be frightened of something so cute!

Luckily Maggie has better instincts, she took one look at the bear and ran away down the trail (good dog!).  Meanwhile, I could not see Oso but I could hear him barking at the bear.  I called him but his normal response to wildlife is to bark until it is tree-d or runs away.  The bear started to move around and I wasn’t sure what it was going to do…

So I ran away.

Folks, this is not what you should do if you meet a bear!  For me, however, this was a calculated risk.  I knew that if I left Oso would follow me so we would not be harassing the bear.  We were also far enough away from the bear in the first place (and it was in a tree) so it could not easily charge us.  Almost as soon as I took off Oso trotted up behind me, probably wondering why I didn’t help him scare the bear away.  Luckily, the bear did not follow him.

I did the rest of my run with on the heavily-trafficed main trail.

He has no idea I used him as Bear Bait

Last night I reached the end of my yarn for Freyja.  Unfortunately, my sweater is not yet complete.  I still have almost the entire yoke to knit.

Luckily, the LYS had plenty more of the same dyelot in stock so I will be back in business tonight.

Just another lesson in the importance of buying local.

I haven’t been knitting a whole lot lately.  There, I said it.

It’s summertime and with school done (!!!) I have been spending as much time outside as possible.

Oso on Mt. Jumbo 7/30/10

At least the dogs are happy even if the blog isn’t.

Mt. Jumbo 7/30/10

I have found time to squeeze in some knitting here and there and as often happens when time is tight I have been mostly monogamous in my knitting.  Although I have many projects on-the-needles I have found myself working on just two projects for the past month or so.

This is the beginning of a Freyja Sweater from a recent Interweave Knits.  I am knitting it out of Frog Tree Alpaca Sportweight.  I am doing this as a mini-kal with my good friend Missy.  It is nice to knit-along with someone, it has really kept me motivated to work on this sweater even though my progress has been glacial.

I’m a little concerned that the brown is too gray to be very flattering but it will at least be soft, warm and lightweight so I’m sure I’ll get a lot of wear out of it once it’s finished.  I’ve completed the sleeves and I’m up to the bust increases on the body.  I’m getting quite excited to reach the colorwork yoke.

This is my other project.  It is an as-yet-unnamed shawlette/scarf thing of my own creation.  I am hoping to write up a free pattern for it when I am done.  I’ve had a hard time deciding how long to make it.  I’m using some yarn that Missy dyed for me and her skeins seem to go on forever!  I’d originally planned to keep going until I ran out of yarn but now I am thinking that 100 grams will make a nicer size for a scarf.  100 grams will only be just under 1/2 the yarn I have.  This project has been on hold this week while I try to make up my mind.

That’s all the knitting!  I think it’s time to head back outside…

Who could say no that?