Sigh...

Harry Potter, sunshine, and new Swish DK in the perfect shade of red. What could possibly be better?

Except, of course, Harry Potter, sunshine, knitting and swedish fish:

So far, I am really enjoying Book 7 and am about halfway through. I am finding it a little weird that Hogwarts has not factored in the story much at all, but I guess I kind of expected as much. But there's been good and surprising character development and certainly a compelling story line. It's bittersweet, of course -- I think that's why I'm knitting and reading, to draw it out and make it last longer.

As for the Swish DK, I love love love the color, and am pretty pleased with the feel -- it certainly is not as smooth and tightly wound as some more expensive superwashes I have tried, like Karabella Aurora 8 or Filatura di Crosa Zara. But for the price, this seems like a great yarn. I am particularly excited about this red, because a lot of the other colors I ordered came out much brighter and louder than they appeared on the computer, which is a fact I often forget about Knitpicks yarn. But this one is true -- a deep, lovely adult cranberry, I'd say about two shades darker and perhaps further into the browns than the Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino I used for the Peach Blossom jacket.

And the design, you ask? I am REALLY excited about this one. I thought long and hard about how to get all of the aspects of this sweater just right and came up with an ingenious scheme, if I do say so myself [laughs sinisterly and rubs hands together]. I'm excited enough that I think I'm going to keep this one under wraps, because it might be good enough to submit for publication.

I had a conversation with my mom last weekend about my knitting and my knitting blog (which she agrees is lovely but sees as somewhat of a waste of time and a possible reason I am not married and reproducing at this very moment). My take on it is that it gives me a goal and a place to show off my work and feel like there is a community I belong to that values what I do as much as I do. As for the designs, I have been really excited to get so much more traffic lately on the blog, and I chalk that up to some of my patterns' popping up on free pattern link sites. I'm proud of the things I design and it excites me that some other people like them too. My mom also suggested I try selling patterns like some other people do on their blogs, and she might be right that I could be making some money to support my yarn habit. But so far I've been pleased to be posting free patterns -- I turn to knitting blogs and free sites for inspiration a lot, and I like being part of this free community. So I've been working on some stuff to submit to Knitty, which is also gloriously free, but I don't think I'll be making up pdf's to sell, at least at the moment.

And as for the marriage and reproducing thing? Who knows. She might be right that the time I spent knitting (and blogging) I could have spent speed-dating or something. But after a month of speed dating I might rack up 3 or 4 awkward first dates, whereas after a month of knitting, I'm left with a sweater...

Until The Deathly Hallows arrives...

... I might as well knit. Here's the latest project -- and the first one for just me in a long time. I know, I know, Arwen is still languishing on the needles with unfinished arms. I just can't take too much straight-up stockinette at one time. So I cast on a complicated project in hopes of getting sick of fiddly fair isle and retreating to the oasis of Arwen sleeves. So far, I haven't felt the need to retreat, and with Saturday's book release nearing, I have a feeling I won't be retreating anywhere but Hogwart's for at least a week...

This is the yoke of a fair-isle yoke cardigan in Brown Sheep Naturespun fingering, design put together by me but based on patterns in Sheila MacGregor's Traditional Fair Isle Knitting. When I started out I was concerned that the blue was too bright to blend with the rest of the colors, but now I am glad I kept at it. And now my only concern is that the yoke is going to look weird with the short-row extra length I put in the back to raise the back part of the collar up. Knitting this has made me remember why I love stranded knitting best of all: though the color changes do take more time than just straight stockinette, they don't seem as time-consuming as cables to me, and the change in the pattern as I knit up row after row is so compelling that it has me saying "just one more row" all evening.

Also blog-worthy are these shots of a finished project modeled by its adorable recipient, Andrew, in the arms of Auntie Jen:

Here he's grabbing his ear and making a face because he's sleepy, and here he is ten minutes later:

Arwen emerges

The top-down Arwen's body is finished!

The hem, in laceweight merino that's approximately the same color:

The zipper will be the perfect length:

The fake seam:

Gratuitous cable shot:

Modeled shots showing the fit (keeping in mind that it is for my sister, whose torso is longer than mine). It is a little on the short side, but I am planning on its growing a little in blocking:

What am I going to do about this?

Nothin'.

Arwen's body is one pattern repeat from completion, and I am not frogging back three inches. Hopefully nobody will be staring so hard at my sister's upper pelvic region that they notice this little cabling error.

Meanwhile, I have discovered an awesome blog: TECHknitting, which has great clear illustrations of a lot of different techniques. Go check it out!