Yummy!

Thanks for all the comments on my latest projects. I have to say that I'm fairly pleased with both and I'm excited about my current projects as well.

I'm plugging away on two afghans right now. My Learn to Knit Afghan is slowly progressing. I've hit the slip stitch section. Square #9 is done, but I need to block it (and fingers crossed, it will look better after blocking) and I've cast on block #10. At this rate I'll have this afghan done by 2010.

However, Babette is a little addictive.

Babette
click to enlarge
Since I'm working from largest squares to smaller squares (and I only have to do half the number of blocks), it feels like it's going very quickly. I'm making sure to weave in the ends as soon as I finish the block so it doesn't kill me at the end. This slows me down quite a bit with the smaller blocks, but I know that I would rather do them as I go than have 125 blocks with ends to weave in. Anyway, all the larger block squares that I'm doing are done, leaving just the 4 round and the 2 round (and some of those are done as well). I'm not following the color suggestions of the pattern, just arbitarily picking colors, but I am following the pattern for sequences. It's quite fun. I'll be making this in stash yarn for our house. It's such a fun pattern to make.

As for sweaters (as you know I'm knitting those as well), I've been concentrating on two projects. One doesn't have photos yet (I'll try to get one later today).

I've restarted the Eyelet Cardi (by Chic Knits... this is the DK version of the Sitcom Chic). My "go to" summer sweater is my Adara Chic. I wear it a lot, but it's still a little warm, so I figured a lighter weight version is a must. I tried earlier to do it in Key Largo, but my gauge was off just enough that it wasn't working (and it was going to be a little warmer than I wanted). I've recast it on in Elann's Callista and I'm loving it.

Callista is a light dk (between a dk and a sport), so the fabric is very drapey at 22 sts to 4". The Viscose/Cotton/Linen blend doesn't hurt either. It's a lot of st. st. (the drawback of lighter weight is that it also means more stitches). Since it's top down, all the fun bits are in the beginning. I'm past the eyelet yoke detail, so now I've just got to keep increasing until the sleeve divide. Dat's a lot of stitches!

However, my new love right now is this:

Gothic Rose Pullover
click to enlarge
I stumbled upon some Dream in Color Classy at the yarn shop at Kraemer's Textiles. The colorway is Gothic Rose (and it is a little rosier than the photo, but when I tried to color correct it, it made it too red). The yarn is drop dead gorgeous. The color is beautiful and the actual yarn is quite nice, with great stitch definition.

The problem is that I always struggle what to use hand dyed yarn for. I don't like it for cable work, as I think the yarn and the cables compete against each other. I would've done Mr. Greenjeans, but I don't need a second one right now (and I quite like the one I already knit). So with Matt's considerable help (and some input from Theresa), I ended up with a simple waffle knit pullover (I'm using a Designs By Judith pattern "The Long and Short of It"). I think the waffle stitch and the hand dyed yarn work well together without competing.

So the question is... do I bother with the vacuuming? or shall I knit? Ya, you know what I'll be doing.