Sweatergirl finishes one project, starts several more

Thanks for all your compliments on the Union Jack sweater. I am really glad I just sat down and spat it out - otherwise, if I thought too much more about it, I might not have done it. But it wasn't really as bad as I feared. Is there more intarsia in my future? Maybe not till E requests it...but then, her grandmother does like to do intarsia, so...well, never say never.

Anyway, it's been a big knitting week for me here - Meg Swansen! Beth Brown-Reinsel! And - new projects abound (Pictures to be added ASAP).

1. I was told we needed to have a circular swatch for Meg Swansen's lecture/workshop, and I decided to start a wallaby (112 stitches, rather than the required 80 stitches). It was fine for the workshop, and I am already through the pocket. The lecture was inspiring - it was great to be in a room with someone so excited about wacky knitting techniques. It is really easy for me to think I know enough techniques to get by, but even Meg is learning new things. And she is so willing to share them! New things for me - invisible cast-on, tubular ribbing, phony seams. Also, I am thinking of making a sampler with different increases/decreases to refer to later. If I don't lose it, of course...

2. A teeny tiny sweater in the Beth Brown-Reinsel "Arans from the Top Down" workshop. This little thing is packed with techniques - no time for boring knitting. We cast on tubular knitting and did a super-stretchy neckband, then created saddle shoulders, then picked up saddle stitches and used short rows to shape the front neck. Neat trick. I may try to use this whole idea sometime - even for a plain sweater. As a bonus, I finally learned how to strangle bobbles effectively. I had made her mini-gansey from the Knitting Ganseys book on my own, which was pretty cool, but it was much better to do this workshop and it was great to meet such a creative knitter and talented designer. Wow.

3. A needlepoint rug. Yeah - it's a little different. I am trying to make a folk-arty rug with random stripes from leftover wool. Yet - I can't be totally random. Very hard. To lessen the randomness, I tried to add alphabet blocks using cross-stitch, but it was silghtly unsuccessful and more than slightly annoying to follow the chart. Back to enforced randomness.

4. I have another new project ready, and I am dying to cast on, but I am going to sew the little purple sweater together and add buttons to it and another buttonless sweater before the next little tiny sweater is started.

5. Sarah and I are going to make the Celtic Dreams sweater, starting after Labor Day. We have both wanted to make this since, like, forever (ack - has it been seven years since I fell in love with that pattern?). After seeing it in person this weekend, and hearing Beth describe how it was all put together, I am sure I really need to do it. I'm going to try to swatch with the yarn I've been thinking of using (DB Cashmerino Aran - which I know has a bad reputation for pilling, but it just feels lovely...). But anyway - I gotta swatch so that if it doesn't work I can seek other yarn...