A Knitted Gift.... Late

Early in November it was my turn to drive to choir.  Choir for the MiMBY Girl is downtown less than a block away from one of my favorite yarn stores.  With an hour to kill, I like to wander in and check out the new pattern books, the fabric (she carries gorgeous fabric), and I try very hard not to look at yarn.  I have a stash.  I could knit for two years straight and probably not get through my stash.  Maybe.  

Alas, there I was studiously looking away from the yarn when this caught my eye:

Could you walk away from this color?  I didn't think so.

This color just said, "Dad."  And well, a yarn purchase is totally justified when it's a gift.  And Christmas is coming, and a birthday too.  For the same recipient.  I bought enough for a men's cardi and hoped that it would be enough.

Then I went home and selected four patterns that would work with the yarn, sent them off to my mom for her opinion, not realizing that she would flat out ask my dad which one he wanted.  Happily, he chose Slade, the cardigan I was most excited to knit.  Knowing that I would be mostly knitting on size 8 needles, I was supremely confident that I could finish by Christmas.  Heh.

I wasn't really thinking about the MiMBY Gift Market.  I hadn't taken into account the small gift knitting that had to happen.  I really wasn't thinking at all in my excitement to cast on.

Meanwhile, it's been the coldest winter in recent history in east Tennessee, and a warm cardigan would have been appreciated a month ago.   However, with a mere month of winter left in the south, I am just about done.

Everything I knit becomes my new favorite knitting project ever, until I complete another.  Slade is a super pattern - lovely details and finishes.  The tubular cast-on, which almost gave me a nervous breakdown over the Thanksgiving holiday, creates a beautiful edge on the ribbing along the bottom and sleeves.  The buttonholes are designed for good-sized buttons and reinforced with the blanket stitch.  Ingenuous.  I love this sweater.  

Will send it off in the morning - with lots of love (and dog hair!) knitted into every stitch!