Pressing On

I finished a felted tote bag today at 2 am.  Which leaves only a second knee sock, an entrelac hat, and an stranded colorwork sweater still to knit by July 1.  The good news is the sweater has short sleeves.  The bad news is that the yarn isn't here yet.

I'm starting to think about vacations, and wondering what it would be like to take a break from knitting.  Not seriously wondering, you understand, just casually noticing that even people who really love what they do sometimes take time off from it.  But I have no idea what else I would do with myself.

I can't imagine what it would be like not to knit every day.  Trying to conceive of it makes my left eye twitch.  But I can get behind the idea of some purely recreational knitting.  Some spinning, maybe.  Anything without a deadline hanging over it.

I often remind myself that the great thing about deadlines is eventually, they always arrive.  And after they do, you can quit thinking about them, one way or the other. 

Predictably, Phillip and the Smallies being home on summer vacay is cramping my style.  Everyplace I look, there's a body.  Campbell has taken to building forts out of the living room sofa cushions, which keeps him entertained, but makes for less-than-optimal seating.  Lindsay has a cold, which makes her cross and needy.  Phillip's laptop died, which means that due to his compulsive need to surf the interwebs, he's constantly hogging my computer. 

Fortunately, I can knit.  I think I'll join Campbell in the living room fort.

All in Good Time

It seems like only yesterday that I was sorting out the challenges presented by my Noro project.  Not that I was at liberty to show it to you, or tell you much about it, at the time.

But now I finally can!  Introducing:

It's available now, so I can tell you all the things I wanted to say last summer but couldn't, such as: I am very proud of this piece, for many reasons.

First of all, it's Dead Sexy, if I do say so myself.  Second, its selection for publication validates some very hard work I had been doing to improve my sketching skills:

You'll notice that Vogue's selection of colorway differs from what I originally suggested - I imagined a dark background, while they chose a light one.

Here's what the sample looked like when I finished it:
 

If you look closely, you can see that Vogue changed my purple and silver buttons to bronze ones.  They also changed the name of the design from "Niji" (Japanese for "rainbow") to the very original "Fair Isle Cardigan". 

But it's still mine (well, in spirit, at least - Vogue owns the sample), and I'm proud to have it featured in a what I think is a very beautiful book.


 

The Score, So Far

At T -18 days (I am still optimistically counting today) until my next deadline, I have 5 of the nine required projects for my book completed.  I feel as if I'm running flat out, chest heaving, wind sucking, feet pounding.  All in the stillness of my living room.

It's gonna be a short-lived stillness:  School is out on Wednesday.  The Smallies are done before Phillip, which means I won't be pawning them off on him, either.  And it's raining.  If that's still the case in three more days, I don't like my chances for productivity.  I'm trying not to freak out.  Really trying. 

It's still FIVE down, which is really good.  And the remaining 4 projects are socks, a hat, a bag, and a sweater.  Not impossible, right?  I mean it's not like there's a motorcycle cozy on the list or anything.

Oh, and the sweater isn't exactly designed yet.  I only kind of know what it's going to be.  And there's no yarn for it yet, because I only kind of know what it's going to be.

I will not freak out.  I will not freak out.  I will not freak out.