A Sweater I've Already Worn a Few Times

Special thanks to Frieda, for again appreciating my art

I really haven't talked about it since November, but the Black Diamond cardigan is done, and overall I'm very happy with it. I finished it (or I should say, my mother sewed the buttons on it) before taking Frieda with me to Boston, and it looks good and fits well. I wish that the body was a little longer, but I've worn it several times without showing any unsightly flab as far as I know, and that's really good enough for me.

The pattern is really nicely written, it's the Lucy in the Sky cardigan by Laura Chau. It's the first time I've knit a sweater all in once piece, so the construction was new to me but it wasn't difficult at all. I was worried about getting the sleeves even and the right length, but knitting both at the same time worked well. The yarn is Dream in Color Classy, which had more variation between skeins that I liked, but is very nice to work with and goes a long way. I alternated skeins, and made sure I didn't change both skeins at once, but still feel like I can tell where I changed (even though not alternating would have been much more obvious). It's also surprisingly comfortable to wear. Most wool is itchy to me, but this yarn is tolerably itchy with short sleeves underneath, and not itchy at all with a long sleeved T underneath.

Although I've barely been blogging, I do have a few new projects on the needles that I'll post about soon. And I bought yarn today for another sweater, though I think I should finish another project (ANY other project) before casting on for that!

In non-knitting news, I'm still running. Since my last post, I've been back to Boston to see my friend S___ run the Boston Marathon, and to run the Boston Marathon 5K the day before. I got a medal (everyone who finished got a medal). It was cold and a little rainy the day that I ran (and some presumably more elite runners chose to support the 5K crowd by yelling things like "Way to go, run-joggers!"), but marathon day was beautiful. S___ ran in 3 hours and 17 minutes, which means that he ran each of the EIGHT 5Ks that make up a marathon a lot faster than I ran my ONLY 5K. Super fun day, super fun trip.

Back in the Safe

I've definitely seen better baseball, but Opening Day is still a treat--special guests, extra introductions, and the grounds crew is guaranteed to dance. The Iris Waves I started for Spring Training made an appearance, too!

I Don't Think That Frieda Understands My Art

Frieda about to roll dangerously close to a finished knitted item.

The un-Spring-y project I crammed into my bag at the last minute before leaving for Spring Training is done! It's the sparkly, Dream In Color Starry black Damson that I started last summer, but put aside at some point for some unknown reason. It turned out to be a great travel project, because it didn't require a lot of attention--easy to work on a few minutes at a time, easy to work on while exhausted from travelling & baseball. Now that it's spring, I'm not sure whether I'll have a chance to wear this anytime soon. And if I don't use it myself before next winter, it seems fairly likely that it will end up being an emergency holiday gift--which is fine, since I can always make another one!

Here's a dog free photo, taken in Chez E____ last weekend: