Sweater, Resurrected

Every knitter has at least one of these, a sweater or other UFO that's been thrown into a dark corner of the closet or hidden under a pile of other items in a dresser drawer. They are incomplete, frustrating to the owner for one reason or another. This is mine. This is the Shapely Tee from White Lies. Knit in Reynolds Gypsy, a 100% mercerized cotton, I started this last summer. I really hated it. Not the yarn. The project. For whatever reason, the knitting just seemed endless. Stockinette, *yawn*. My original intent was to practice short rows, and I did do a little bit of that. However, because I'm not bigger busted I didn't need to short row much except at the hem. I then decided to knit the sleeves from the top down, using short rows to shape the cap. I thought that was a great idea because I wanted to avoid seaming sleeves to armholes. Unfortunately, the results didn't look very good (the sleeves looked "pulled away" from the armhole) so I frogged and knit the sleeves from the cuff up. Oh, and I did a little bit of math to make them 3/4 sleeve rather than cap. I also experimented with a 3-needle bind off at the shoulders, which is excellent. I will use that technique from now on. But after all that, I was just ready to put the sweater away for a while - 8 months in fact. When I picked it up again 3 weeks ago, I struggled with the neckline but finally had satisfactory the results. It's still not perfect. I like the patterns from White Lies but I'm not sure they are for me. I just do not have the shapely figure that Joan McGowan designs for. In fact, this sweater makes me look practically bustless. How ironic! Anyways, I am so glad to be done with this.

I am looking forward to my May projects! Finishing Diane should be quite doable now, and a pair of socks under my belt would be ideal. Enough of the practice sock. It was tedious. Plus, it was too big. I want to move on! I'm going to cast on tonight for the Simple Socks from Sally Melville's The Purl Stitch.

In non-knitting endeavors, Karl and I participated in a charity golf tournament yesterday. We arrived at the ungodly hour of 7am but the morning was bright and crisp with just the right amount of coolness. We were part of the only foursome out of 18 who decided to walk (carts are a little wussy on an executive course) and started at the absolute farthest hole from the clubhouse. Since none of use had played golf for many moons, we bogeyed the first 4 or 5 holes but were much better on the back 9. I surprised myself with some good drives early on but tired out at the end. Karl tried to console me later - "I know how well you play, you could've won the longest drive with some practice." He's a good man.

This morning I put my bike on a trainer and worked out for about half an hour. You work up a sweat when you ride indoors! Sometimes I place a box fan in front of me but it's usually too loud. Why train inside when it's a perfectly beautiful day, you may wonder. Well, Karl went on a hike today and I'm paranoid about getting a flat tire or otherwise being in an accident when I'm 20 miles away from here and alone. It's just a quirk of mine. I don't have problems running by myself with no ID or cell phone but am scared at the thought of being stranded by the road on a bike by myself. We started riding after work on Tuesdays, which means long and hard rides coming up. I want to justify purchasing the gorgeous Isis model from Terry Bicycles at the end of the summer.

That's all I have to report from my corner. Hope you are happily knitting away!