Fall Into All the Things

I successfully finished my 7K haul for Stash Dash and thought briefly that I'd relax a bit. The Philosopher suggested gently that perhaps my knitting had been a bit too much of late and I could do things like, sort and put away some paperwork that I've been ignoring for months.*

But even I have been surprised by the breadth, depth, and rapidity into which I've flung myself into fall knitting and yarn purchasing. Add to that the beginning of the fall semester with all of it's usual stress level increases and the yarn purchasing comes less of a shock. Yes, I deal with stress by buying yarn. Anyone who has known me for more than a few years knows this.

Past Stressed Me bought Present Me a beautiful stash, I'm not going to be angry at her about it.

One example of Past Me's Largesse:

One weekend in La Crosse -- my colleagues drove me up to Herrschner's Warehouse Sale. They appear to do it every summer, though I've only ever been the once. I bought at least three sweater lots, plus random single skeins of stuff with glitter in it and some fleece yarn. I made a wash cloth out of some of the bulky fleece yarn and a shawl out of one sweater lot.  The glitter yarn is gone-- not sure where it ended up.  

But I do have this Nob Hill Simply Divine, a worsted 75% wool, 20% silk, 5% cashmere yarn of which I have 1150 yards, a decent sweater quantity for me.  The first planned pattern for this, which AudioGirl and I had picked out, ended up not working. The pattern really needs a heavy aran weight and this is more on the DK end of worsteds.  

So instead I'm knitting up Joji Locatelli's pattern Seacoast. In the first days after Stash Dash (which ended on 8/24) I was charging through skeins of this yarn and had ideas of finishing it in two weeks. It was worsted weight, it was so easy -- of course I could get it done in two weeks. 

Uh huh. And then I hit the reality of I need to try it on every six-eight rows because I wanted a narrower waist, I have a long torso, I'm picky....  And so it is currently languishing in the livingroom. I'm hoping after some grading tonight I can get through the hip shaping and onto the bottom 2.5"  I like the pattern, making fairly minimal modifications. Getting the sleeves done is going to be an effort, but a friend of mine is coming to town this weekend and she'll totally understand if I spend all of brunch turning a green blob around and around in my lap.  

*Surprise, I'm still ignoring that paperwork.