My Red Sweater

This is a red sweater.  The red part has not been made yet, but it's all up here in the cranial attic, poised to come out onto the needles.  I'm not sure if I was really anticipating how wide the lower border would be, but once I had all those killer kool-aid colors, I wasn't about to leave any out.  My favorite is the swimming-pool blue (Kool-Aid flavor "Berry Blue" x 2, plus a tiny dash of "Grape" for depth). 

I am in love with this yarn to a degree that borders on unreasonable.  It is so wicked, so sproing-y, so affordable!  I have begun to fear that it will be discontinued, just because its wonderfulosity might offend the knitting gods, causing them to smite it down in a fit of jealousy.  Or else maybe I'm just a spaz.  Probably that.  It's made in Turkey, you get it from Jo-Ann.com, where it is nearly always on sale, and each skein has like a jillion yards.  The availability of the colors varies greatly, so I am thinking I will have to start checking more regularly in order to truly hoard it properly...

Honest though, The Dala Horse Sweater will be substantially more red when you see it next, because I'm fixing to launch into some serious Dala Horsiness.  Dala Horsing Around.  Looking a Gift Dala Horse in the Mouth.  Beating a Dead Dala Horse.  You get the idea.

Live And Let Dye

So there I was, wondering why this yarn that I'm crazy in love with only comes in such limited colors when I remembered:  This is why God gave us Kool-Aid!

After a 90-day (give or take) hiatus from colorwork, I have decided that it's time to return to the Mother Ship.  I've been invited to appear on Knitting Daily TV, and heaven knows I don't need a better excuse than that to make a new sweater.  I also have been asked by my editor to provide some swatches and photos for the illustrator to use.  Since I'm not much of a sketcher,
 
Phillip: "Oh, that's a cute unicorn." 
Me: "It's a horse."
Not kidding.  This was last night.
 
I decided photos would be the way to go.  I'll take pictures in progress of all the techniques the illustrator needs to see, and I get a sweater at the end!  What could possibly go  wrong?  Of course, the deadline for this little project is completely unreasonable, but I wouldn't know how to live otherwise.  Care to join me as I play Beat-The-Clock (again)?  I have until 01-23 to provide all 30 photos.  And do a bunch of rewrites, too.  Did I mention there seems to be a lot of WRITING in this book-writing gig? Strange how it keeps coming up.

But back to the yarn:  I started off with yarn in red, pink and cream.  Knowing that would never be enough color variety, I dove into the trusty Kool-Aid stash and pulled out my favorites: Berry Blue, Grape, Lemon-Lime and orange.  The colors are so clear and gumdroppy - just the kind of naive, folk-art look I need as a jumping off point from this:

I know - How kitsch can you get?  I SO love the Swedish Dala Horse.  When I asked myself what I could do with Red and White, this is the first thing I thought of.  So this will be my Dala Horse sweater.  I'll make notes as I go, in case anybody wants me to write a pattern for this someday.  The chart in the first picture is only the lower border - the really red and white business will come after that.  Wait till you see it!  The whole thing makes me want to buy a Volvo and drive it to Ikea.
 

Finding Neutral

The depth and breadth of my own naiveté never ceases to amaze me.  I really thought that this week would be no big deal.  Turns out that even when I see the headlights, I sometimes fail to notice that I'm about to be hit by a truck.

Simply put, it's been a bugger of a week.  I was thinking late last night that I finally feel back on center and ready to tackle the jobs before me when it came to me that this was THURSDAY, and the jobs before me have actually been there since MONDAY.  It's taken that long to quit grinding my gears and begin at the beginning.

But I guess that's just the way it goes:   Not everything you do can be your very best, any more than every attempt can fail.  Knowing this does not keep me from being hit upside the head by it, however.

By way of self-reassurance, I will now enumerate the week's accomplishments (some of these belong to Phillip, whose week also chewed him up and spit him out):

1.  Finished AND POSTED Faery Ring pattern, at long last.  It feels like I have been working on it since Thanksgiving.  Which I have.  Marilyn King of Black Water Abbey Yarns, who was kind enough to provide the gorgeous yarn, also likes it, and has plans to spread a few copies around.  Yay.  (Get yours on my homepage, and tell a friend if you like it).

2.  Delivered the elder offspring to not one but two ice-skating lessons in one week, a new personal parenting best, which almost compensates for missing the fact that there was no school on Monday and leaving both children waiting for a bus destined never to arrive.

3.  Successfully attended first Cub Scout meeting with the younger offspring, on only the third attempt.  Offspring pronouncing it cool = Bonus Points for Dad, who also felt really bad about the bus thing.

There may have been other achievements, but I can't remember anymore.  I'm just so happy to see the back of the last few days. 

So even though it's Friday, I'm going to treat this day like it's a whole new beginning.  There's a birthday party to plan, about 23 loads of laundry to do, a bunch of bills to pay, and oh yeah, a WHOLE BOOK TO REWRITE (*me not panicking*).  I'm SO going to buy wine on the way home tonight.  And maybe some Qiviut yarn, too.