As of 5:51 AM CST
at Chicago, Illinois
Clear
Temperature: 0°
Wind chill: -12°
Wind: SW 6 mph
Umph. Something else dropped at midnight on New Year's Eve. Do you see the minus sign in the Wind Chill line? I feel it. People here like to chuckle and say, "Good sleepin' weather, though." Indeed. Does our DNA long for the cave, where we all used to hibernate the cold months away, curled in piles like little cubbie bears?
My alarms' have been set earlier and earlier. The day job shift has moved backwards in the a.m. so I'm getting up in the dark (around 5: 30). I use the phrase getting up very loosely, because I sort of roam around the hut with open eyes but sleepy head until at least 30 minutes into re-entry. My body clock isn't cooperating too well either.
Coupled with Daylight Savings lag, I wake up sometimes at 4am(!) convinced it's 5:30 and time to get a move on. And once I'm up, I'm up!
This calls for extreme measures and very easy knitting.
What else can a person do without waking up the entire building (laundry, nyet, dishwasher, nyet, vacuuming, nyet nyet) but ease into the day gracefully and possibly caffinated.
I've been knitting on the 4th Beryl cardigan: this one is for mwah and is fashioned with some stashed Ram Wools *Selkirk*. This is the same yarn I used for the Ariann model and I have to say I really love this stuff.
Now, I have no skin reactions from wool at all. This is one of those old-fashioned beautiful yarns that isn't processed into oblivion, making it so limp and soft it's like butta.
Well, as you know a little butter can add a lot of flavor but something that's 100% butter doesn't last too long. Hmm.
This yarn has the character AND thus the wearability of classic wool. It softens with washing; some people wash it before knitting to get the effect faster. It softens on wearing, makes a beautiful lightweight fabric, doesn't pill as far as I can tell, and is one of those yarns that resists felting. I love it! [Does anyone know if this is the same as Brigg's & Little Heritage yarn. Cottage Craft?] Couple that with the ulitmate fact that I hardly EVER wear any kind of yarn right next to my skin (oft heard complaint about wool) that isn't cotton, etc. and you have a hands-down winner in the wool sweepstakes. I love it. Did I say that already? and, NAYY...
One of the fave Christmas presents was a DVD box set of HBO's ROME and this Beryl was knit-with. Why did my speed increase so very much every time James Purefoy was on-screen? Stockinette st is great for TV knitting! This has gone on the bus with me, too.
The strategy became to knit in one piece to underarm (check, that's what the pattern sez anyway); finish the left upper bodice (check—still following the pattern); skip ahead to Sleeve #1 (check—feeling really frisky in the St st department); go directly to Sleeve #2 (momentum is pulling you right along!). Left to finish? The Back Upper Bodice and Right Upper Bodice and bands.
This is a good point to pin Sleeve #1 into the armhole to check the fit of the cap, pressing some of the areas to lie smoother first. Check.
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