Waiting to Exhale

And together now, breath in...hold...exhale. I have embarked on a new journey over the past couple of weeks and it entails adventures beyond my imagining. I have started something amazing in two very different ways. First, I have started my first full size human sweater. This is the real deal. It is made for a human who has lived on this planet for many many years and has reached her full growing potential. Secondly, I am making this sweater for myself! For those of you out there who might actually know me, you probably just took a big breath of your own in surprise. You see, I just don't spend too much time doing things for myself for a number of deep rooted psychological reasons which we won't get into and this is a fairly monumental event. You see, although I haven't been updating my blog lately, I have been spending a fair amount of time knitting. I have also spent quite a bit of time thinking about knitting and one thing I'm starting to figure out is; I want to knit because I want to knit, not because I feel like I have to make something for someone else or to make money or the like. I am working on knitting more just because I want to knit. So, my first project to catch you up on is...the Deep Breath Sweater.
I've been wanting to make a sweater for a while and I've been trolling for patterns and just not finding something that inspired me enough to spend the money on the yarn, but didn't scare me with its complexity. Well, I got my new Webs catalog and while flipping through the pages, I found the Deep Breath Sweater pattern. I was drawn to the ease of the pattern, the pretty feminine look, and I could knit it with some yarn I had in my stash. Sounds perfect! I bought the pattern and got started. So, I did my gauge swatch and of course I'm not getting gauge, but I really like the fabric, so I've rewritten the whole pattern for the 5 sts/in that I'm knitting. I think I'm a glutton for punishment. It's a Raglan style knit from the top down in one piece and I'm about 6" away from being finished with the first sleeve. I really like it so far!

I've finished a few things too. I finished the Roundabout Socks for S. They fit perfectly and they were quite nice to knit. I knit them with Plymouth Happy Feet and it's got a nice feel to it. My only real complaint is the two socks are two different colors. One looks faded compared to the other and yet they haven't been treated differently and they are the same dye lot. I don't know what's going on there but I'm hoping it becomes less apparent as they are worn and washed.

I've also been working on some dishtowels and such using the Organic Cotton I bought from Elann. I really like the way this yarn feels but it does split quite a bit. The colors are supposed to get more intense as it gets washed and I'm interested to see how it behaves. I love the overall feel of the cloth and I plan on using the rest of the yarn I have to just make a series of these. They may become Christmas gifts. The really cool part is I'm using the buttons from my garage sale button stash which I just love.
It was also my birthday last month and I was given some money and I bought myself some stuff. Again, I went to Webs and I just got myself a bunch of cool stuff. I finally got a swift and ball winder, which I used to wind the cotton in the dishtowel above. And I got a bunch of other stuff to make I-don't-know-what stuff. I see lots of potential.
I already made another Urchin hat, see below. It turned out pretty cute even if this one is actually a bit big. I have to get some pictures taken with it on my head to show how it fits. I think it looks cute and it won't mess up my hair too much. :)
Lastly, the garden. Well, the garden has been a little disappointing. It's gone absolutely insane with growth and the bugs just went after it. The aphids went in and overnight half the plants were dried up and dying. The watermelon got a fungus and died and I found three other ones dead off the vine. There's one more out there that may or may not make it. I can't really tell. The tomatoes are mostly dead but I've been pulling off the tomatoes I can. Here's the motley group. They ain't pretty but the actually taste pretty good. Next year, I'm kickin' this garden's butt!