I’m still debating my next project.  I’m tempted by a sweater using the persephone yarn, but I know that Cherie Amour isn’t that sweater. I went back and looked at all the Cherie Amour projects again and I just don’t have te body confidence some of the larger ladies who’ve made it had.

I’m thinking about swatching up Eiffel and doing a yarn substitution as I think the overall look of the sweater will be better for my figure.  I also think it will be easier to add short shaping in the ribbing top section to accomodate the girls.

Then again, maybe that yarn just wants to be Liesl and doesn’t know it yet.  The yarn is brown with silvery gray brown patches and a soft lavender undertone.  It could could be very pretty as a long sleeved Liesl and I need a new sweater for work.  I’m freezing already.

On the stole front, I’m still torn on which comes first between Muir and Oakwoods.  I’ve got some Woolen Rabbit Laceweight in Morrocan Spice (like this one in a Ravelry Stash), which would make a nice fall colored Muir.  So would the Knit Picks Campfire.  Oakwoods, on the other hand, is calling too, and would be so perfectly seasonal.

The ideas are still bubbling, so I haven’t cast on a darned thing yet.  Cursed indecision, anyway.  If I haven’t narrowed down the pattern for the sweater by tomorrow, I’ll probably cast on Oakwoods next, simply because I’ve figured out both pattern and yarn.

Sarah Blanch is off the needles.  Hopefully, I’ll get to block it tomorrow and take some blocking shots of it.  There aren’t terribly many of this shawl on Ravelry, and it’s a shame because it’s a very pretty and easy pattern.  The main complaint is that the shawl is knitted side to side instead of up and down, so the pattern repeats are extremely long.

My biggest problem now is trying to decide what to make next.  I have several options, so it’s just a matter of deciding what I want to do next.  I’d like either something more challenging to knit thatn Sarah Blanch, or I’d like something quicker to complete.

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I’ve bought the yarn I’m going to use to make Linden, Cascade Ecological Wool in color 8049 (Tarnish), and now I’m officially on a yarn diet.*No sock clubs. No impulse buys. Especially no sales.

No mindless pattern surfing. All pattern searches must be in pursuit of using yarn from the stash. No projects I can’t make with what I’ve already got. Everything in the queue must be assigned yarn from my stash. If it can’t be made from stash yarn, then it goes to the bottom of the queue.

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Last night after reading the first issue of Twist Collective, I nearly went on a pattern buying spree. There were simply too many fabulous patterns. I bought the gnarled oakwoods shawl I recognized from the swatch for from Anne at Knitspot.

Beyond that, I went into pattern overload system shock. It was simply too much love and I went into a semi-paralyzed state as I realized that if I bought every pattern I wanted to make right now, I’d have no money for yummy yarn and nothing appropriate in my stash to making anything I wanted beyond the shawls. Plus, I’d have one sweater, Pam Allen’s Come Together, which I’d have to grade up to fit a 52 inch bust by adding eight inches, if one takes the minimum negative ease fitting suggestion) which is a daunting proposition. Is it total obsession that I’m still considering doing that?

There was only one solution: buy nothing else and sleep on it.

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My aunt’s scarf is off the needles. I can officially daydream about other projects without any guilt. K1 p1 rib is about the second most boring thing to knit that there is. Knitted lace has always seemed like the holy grail of knitting to me, and now that it’s an attainable goal, I’m getting the itch to do something bigger than a scarf.

Last year it seemed like lace shawls with feathered borders were “the thing.” I kept seeing them everywhere.

First it was the icarus shawl designed by Miriam Felton on the cover of Best of Interweave Knits. I recently bought the download from the designer to have a clean copy of the pattern without having to deal with consulting errata mid-knit. I’m lazy like that.

Then it was Anne of Knitspot’s irtfa’a shawl with it’s beautiful use of Blue Moon Design’s Raven Clan Colors. I’m partial to the Ravenscroft colorway.

More recently, I’ve run across the Seraphim Shawl, also by Miriam Felton. Curse you, Ravelry and your easy to use pattern search function. Don’t you know browsing patterns is better than surfing Don’t you know I’m something of an obsessive pattern collector when I find a designer I like? It’s your fault, Ravelry, that I bought the Zephyros Shawl, too.

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