Knitting Season

I'm ready for Fall.  Know how I'm ready?  I picked up my needles after a too long hiatus a few weeks ago and have jumped head first back into knitting.  I usually don't knit during the spring and summer but last year I had increased my skills and tried new things.  I thought that it might actually turn into a full time hobby.  Sadly I got struck down by a project that was making me sad and I just had to put it away for awhile. 

In January I decided to knit my very first sweater, specifically this one by designer Veera Välimäki:

It's a great sweater. The pattern is well written and I found it pretty easy to knit.  I even finished knitting the body.  

Then I tried it on....I'll be honest.  I felt fat.  The yarn is Rowan Cocoon which is beautiful and soft...and bulky.  Though I love Veera's designs and this is a really fun sweater I don't think it's the sweater for me.  At the time it was really disheartening and I completely stopped knitting for 5 months.  Now that I'm back in the saddle I think it's time to frog it and use that beautiful and squishy yarn for something else.  

Now that I've moved on, here is what I've been working on:

A sweet little baby hat for a gift

Greenleaf Baby Hat by Evelyn Uyemura

Arm warmers for when the weather finally turns a little cold

Toast by Leslie Friend

And now I'm working on this Dandy Neckerchief by Ariane Caron-Lacoste 

It's a really simple but beautiful lace pattern that creates a series of leaves.  When it's blocked I think it's going to be dynamite!

As a quick sidebar to all this knitting talk I just want to say how thankful I'm feeling today to have made it safe and sound through Irene over the weekend.  My parents were visiting and they bravely weathered the storm with us, though our very wooded front yard looked pretty harrowing for most of Saturday.  We didn't loose any trees, we had the yard all cleaned up by 10:00 AM on Sunday thanks to my parents lending a hand and we were without power for only 23 hours.  I have friends that have a lot more damage and still don't know when power will be restored.  We feel so very lucky.