FO: Selbu!

I finally finished sumthin'.

Selbu Modern
Yarn: Shibui Sock Yarn, 1 skein each burgundy and citrus green

Me like this pattern. Me like this yarn. 'Nuff said, no?

Ok, ok, so I'll embellish since this is the first knitting-related post I've managed to come up with over the last month.

I have a love/hate relationship with fair isle. I love it for the results and the detailed work it takes to bring it all about. I love it for the rhythm it creates when I'm knitting and the way I can see the end result growing row by row. But on the other hand, I hate it for its fiddly nature, I hate it for its time and mind-consuming craziness, and I hate that my tension goes from even to uneven.

But can anyone really argue with the beauty of the finished product?

So prettttttttttttttttty.

This must be why fair isle is the rock upon which I beat my furrowed brow.

I also kind of want to abandon my WIPs temporarily and start a new sweater. Am I bad?

Stashbusting Mania!

I may have purchased more stash and pattern booklets. We'll get to that next time, but in the meantime, my guilt has targeted the massive amounts of Ultra Alpaca in my knitting bin:

Months ago, I saw Lolly's Jacquard Pulli and lusted after it, but thought I should wait until more WIPs reached FO status. However, after staring into my Ultra Alpaca basket and trying to figure out what to do it all, I decided fair isle was the perfect medicine. Turns out I was right!

Fair isle is one of those wonderful (or horrible, depending on how you look at it) things that are impossible to put down. I started this two days ago and the ribbing was slow, but as soon as the colorwork started, I was zooming along like Michael Phelps, Olympic-style. Here are some guts:

I'm using five colors of Ultra Alpaca, a red Ultra Alpaca Light, and a beige Louisa Harding Grace Silk & Wool. I redid the color chart on Excel in order to compensate for the similar color values my yarn has as opposed to the colors Rebecca 34 uses. Yes, I know I have just added more WIP to the WIP pile. But I don't feel bad since I'm done with the back and one front of the Snowdrift cardi, I'm done with the back and 90% of the front of Clint's sweater and Ene looks like this:

I have two repeats of the third chart and the final chart left to do.