I can't believe it...

But the knitting is finished on my Fireside (first blogged here, then again here; Ravelry pattern page here)! This has been over a year and a half in the making. It feels weird that it's done. I did the finishing as I went, so all that's left is to sew in the sleeves and sew on the buttons (I blocked the sleeves last week, but the rest of it has been sitting in vest form for quite a while).

I haven't fully appreciated the occasion yet. I am a little dazed. :) I took a detail picture of the sleeves the day I finished to commemorate the big day, but I can't wait until I can try the whole thing on!

Seaming Reverse Stockinette...Or, Finding My Motivation

I have been a busy knitter lately! I finished my second Creature Comforts Cardi, this one for a friend (who promised to send me a picture of her wearing it so I can share!) and decided that my poor Fireside Cardigan had been neglected for far too long. The problem is that I always lose my will to go on once a project is to the point where all that is left is the sleeves, so I decided to do the finishing on the body to kick start my desire to finish the sleeves. I love the coil-less pins to keep things together while I stitch, and I lay the whole thing over my knee to have both hands free for the work.



Mattress stitch is my preferred seaming method because it is so invisible--but I'd never seamed reverse stockinette before, so out came my trusty Reader's Digest Knitter's Handbook by Montse Stanley. It turns out it's not much different from stockinette mattress stitch; you just have to make sure you always catch the bottom of the ridge on one side and the top of the ridge on the other. So as I was working, I was chanting "Bottom, top, bottom, top..."

I think it turned out pretty well...as you can see below, there is a little ridge where the seam is, but I am thinking re-blocking the piece once it's all seamed up will solve that.

I still have some ends to weave in and the perfect buttons to find, but it looks like a vest now! And, HUUUUUUGE sigh of relief, it fits. Now to tackle those sleeves.

Look at me, I'm Cameron D!

You've seen the movie The Holiday, starring Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet? A sweet movie, especially the half with Kate Winslet and Jack Black (though the fact that I am a sucker for Hollywood Golden Age stories probably biases me just a bit)...

I saw it in the theater with a group of college friends and friends-of-friends. It was one of those outings where we pretended we were still 19 years old, not married-with-children/grownups-with-jobs/old-enough-to-know-better. (I may or may not have giggled wildly at the pivotal and emotional scene where Jude Law describes his "package"--watch it again, you'll see what I mean!) We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, so much so that when the credits rolled we were scolded by a woman sitting three rows behind us--who was, as a result of our behavior (she claims!) "ashamed to be a woman."

Though I was not even a knitter at the time, this sweater stole its scene:



I went home and did a little googling, and amazingly enough, I found it! It could be mine, for a mere $995. (Go to http://www.tsecashmere.com/ and click Shop, then Women, then Classics. It's "The Holiday Sweater.")

Fast forward a couple of years, and I was trawling Ravelry for patterns...and I found it. THE SWEATER. Someone (Amber Allison) had watched the movie frame by frame and written the pattern. Never mind that I had only been knitting for five months. Never mind that I didn't own a cable needle and wouldn't know what to do with one if I did. I. Must. Have. That. Sweater. (Rav link: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fireside-sweater)

So, intrepid knitter that I am, I bought the pattern. Brown Cascade Ecological Wool in #8087 Coffee was swatched. But no, my dream sweater must be white. I ordered the yarn called for in the pattern--first time ever!--and off I went.

I practiced the cables on a swatch (cables weren't so hard after all!) and started the right front. The yarn (Valley Yarns Berkshire, a wool/alpaca blend singles yarn) is incredibly soft.



I didn't feel much like knitting over the summer, so my Lovely got put aside. Then there was Christmas knitting. Then I fell in love with other patterns. All told, it's been more than a year now, and I am still not finished.



This, my first pattern obsession, will always hold a special place in my heart. Sometimes I pull out the finished pieces, stare at the cables for a while, and pet them. You see, I am in no rush to finish. When it's done, I won't be able to work on it anymore!