knitting season has begun

With the cooler days of fall, I am able to face one of my favorite activities—knitting. I would like to be able to knit year round. Just think of all the projects I would be able to complete! Handknits for all my friends and for every gift-giving occasion. But I absolutely cannot stand to have a heavy length of knitted wool on my lap during the summer. John chuckles whenever I make that statement, because I'm known, even on most summer nights, to curl up under a blanket while we're watching telly. Perhaps this is yet another issue I can work on with Dr. C.

Knitting just beckons in the fall. It goes with football games, leaves that crunch underfoot, and slow-cooked dinners. It's about staving off the need to turn on the heat. Keep warm by moving your hands and placing your knitted piece just-so on your lap, forming a blanket.

I have a few unfinished projects that I'd like to finish, and I will, in good time. For now though I need to have a fresh start with a new project. A few years ago, John asked me to knit another sweater for him. We went to The Yarnery on Grand Ave., where he pulled down from a shelf, the most stunning variegated bulky yarn. The skein was a Lopi (a thick Icelandic wool that is absolutely airtight—my first sweater was knit in a brown Lopi), mostly green, but with shades ranging from a dark chocolate to a light heathered gray.


Of course, the yarn shop didn't have enough skeins to make the sweater, and they couldn't order more, citing that the color was being discontinued. Calls to other local yarn shops yielded the same information. Thank goodness for our friend the internets! I was able to source thirteen skeins in the same dye lot from one of those large mail-order knitting companies. After it arrived on our doorstep, the yarn sat in a shopping bag, gathering dust for two years.

I received the cosmic signal to knit last weekend. And, little boys each asked me to knit them mittens. Since there is a pecking order, but unable to stave off increasingly colder mornings (hence the need for mittens), I thought I'd better hop to my projects. I pulled down the shopping bag labeled, "Yarn for John's sweater," took out a skein, rolled it into a ball, cast 14 stitches onto a needle, and knit a swatch to check my gauge.

My favorite thing about Lopi is how quickly it knits and how perfect each stockinette stitch looks. It's very forgiving. The pattern I'm following is pretty straightforward, too, which contributes to the ease of knitting. It comes from Yankee Knitter Designs, a company that only offers 30 patterns. Most of their instructions include child and adult sizes, so I could make this sweater—with neck, waistband, and cuff variations—for the whole family. And I probably will. I'm making the version with a roll neck, roll waistband, and roll cuff—you know, that classic 90s J.Crew design? And, until I start the armhole shaping, it's totally automatic knitting, which is ideal in front of the TV.


This is what I have, so far. Isn't it gorgeous. I am so envious of my husband and wish I'd seen that yarn first.