NIT!

It's March Madness and my bracket is already busted!

As a alumna of THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA, I always pick Florida to win, and my Gators have done so the past two years. (Which has allowed me to win some fiber money at the expense of my coworkers' gambling habits.)

But, alas, this year, the Gators are a 2 seed in the NIT.

Which is fine with me, since it sounds like KNIT.

So in honor of the NIT, (and the NCAA tournament, which I have UNC winning, as I used to live in the Triangle of North Carolina) I will finish the eggplant sweater and the wrap cardigan by April 3 (which hopefully will be when Florida once again whomps Ohio State)

So Go Gators! Go Heels and let the kNITting begin!

Anyone with me?

Taking the leap

So ...

I decided to cast on a sleeve to see how I liked it, and here's what it looks like.

I want to thank all of you for giving me your advice for the High Neck Cable sweater. It gave me a lot to think about.

As you can see from my reaction, I'm a little skeptical, but what the hell, it's only a sweater.

And now for something completely different...

I have a good friend who is pregnant! So I knitted this from Elizabeth Zimmermann's "Knitter's Almanac."

Elizabeth refers to it as "Baby Sweater on Two Needles; Practically Seemless" but I used Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool and I'm going to modified the name to "Baby Sweater on Two Needles; Practically Seemless and Practically Done with One Skein of Yarn."

Doesn't that sound nice?

Anyway, I didn't knit the Gull Pattern stitch used in the original, because it wouldn't have shown up very well in this green tweed, and my friend is having a boy, so I thought the stockinette would be more appropriate.

I was going to put some white buttons on, but A.K. (in his most vocal opinion on my knitting EVER) said 'No' and so I found these coconut shell buttons.

What do you think?

[ Insert Jeopardy theme music here ]

Unfortunately, I don't know the answer.

I bought the Blue Sky Alpaca High Neck Cable pattern with the intention of making it using the Suri Merino yarn in the color shown above (listed in the pattern as no.421 Garden), but went to the yarn store to find, no Suri Merino. (I also went looking for this, and didn't find it either)

So instead, I found Louet Gems in Eggplant.

(Let me interject and declare my love for eggplant. In fact, I would admit that a very important reason I married A.K. is because he makes THE BEST EGGPLANT PARMESAN EVER.)

Needless to say I fell in love with the color, and Gems has this lovely pearly sheen. Also, it's machine washable AND dryable. So I gathered up 7 skeins and left. (and left to go to the grocery to pick up some eggplants so A.K. could make said eggplant parmesan for dinner)

The whole ride home, I started thinking maybe I made a mistake. Would the eggplant be too dark? Do I even look good in this color? Gems is fingering weight. Did I want to knit an entire sweater with such a fine gauge?

So I need your help. Should I use the Gems for the sweater, or will I just be disappointed?