UFO's of the Worst Kind

The summer was slow with very little progress on my spring projects. My two spring projects, the February Lady Sweater for my Mom and the Short Sleeve Cardi have become UFO’s of the WORST kind. They are desperate to become FO’s and I have not been very kind and helpful to them. As a result, they haunt me day and night with eyes of resentment and bitterness. I can sometimes swear the dpn’s hanging off the Sleeve’s from the Short Sleeve Cardi’s points in my direction purposefully.

February Lady Sweater
I am making my Mom a February Lady Sweater in a rich scarlet ruby red wool – Cascade Superwash. When I first embarked on this project I felt very intimidated by the pattern. The pattern itself presented a bit of confusion in its directions for me because it made assumptions of the level of the knitter. I having a pea for brains could not get my head around the eyelet directions. My head was spinning faster then Linda Blair’s on the Excerist. Because of this reason my February Lady Sweater evolved into a very nasty UFO for months and months.

Last week, my brain grew from pea size to a walnut, with a little help from my knitting group. A few gals in my knitting group where able decipher the eyelet directions and thus progress on the sweater began.

…and my February Lady Sweater lived happily ever after, for now…???

My Short Sleeve Cardi
This is one project that started with the yarn first. I am knitting with Cascade Peruvian Jewel yarn, 100% wool. It's a thick and thin, slightly variegated monochromatic yarn .

The color variation and the thick and thin texture add an additional level of interest on a simple pattern "Short Sleeve Cardigan with Ribbing" from Stephanie Japel's book Fitted Knits. I am knitting this sweater for myself, but if my Mom likes it then I will easily sacrifice it for her.

And what better excuse to buy more yarn then “…..Oh husband, I have to buy more yarn to make another sweater for myself because I gave my Mom that sweater….wink…wink….”

The bulky yarn has provided a fast knit. It is for this very eason that this cardi is bitter. In theory it should not take months and months to complete this sweater. I have not been kind to my sweater. But I am now working on making this UFO become a full fledged FO. No more bitterness cardi, it can’t be good for your wool.

I began my reckless knitting journey by misreading the pattern from the get go. This raglan pattern called for knitting 15 rows for the yoke, instead I knitted 84 rows because I misread the pattern. The 84 were actually the number of stitches I should have on my needles. I made this discovery at around row 63, after looking at my sweater and wondering when I would be separating the stitches for my sleeves. To my dismay I had to rip back all 63 stitches back to the collar. After two days of un-knitting backwards, I was back on track. However, I must admit after this set back I was almost ready to drop the whole project.

At this point the body is complete, and one sleeve is almost done. I am extending the sleeves from short ¾ lengths to a full length sleeve. Ten more rows should complete the right sleeve. I need to start the left sleeve and the edging for the buttons. OH BUTTONS!! Yikes, I need to find buttons.

I have set myself a goal for October 31st as a deadline to complete this project, but I think November is more realistic. So little cardi hold no longer this bitterness, lets look forward to a sweet winter in which you will keep someone if not me warm.