Spring Break, Here I Come!!

Finally, in the last couple of weeks I have made some time here and there to get some knitting done.

Several inches of progress has been made on my Happy Scarf, which I am happy about.Yes, you heard me. I named Happy Scarf as such because it truly makes me happy. It is a fantastic shade of yellow, and the yarn that I found is flecked, and it reminds me of the giant jawbreakers that my brother and I used to sometimes get as a child. It also involves knitting to construct, which automatically makes me happy and relaxes me. Plus, I have knit it while either watching a Harry Potter movie or listening to Dear Reader, Wizard People or Wizard People, Dear Reader (whichever it is called...I always mix it up) or listening to a knitting podcast. All of those things make me happy.

Last night, I tried to knit a bit on the sleeve of my First Sweater, but that did not go well. I am knitting in using the magic loop method on a circular needle. Well since that sleeve has been laying around for so long I lost my place and when I tried to knit a couple of rows of the STOCKINETTE section I knit the wrong way by knitting back the last row completed before I set the sleeve down for months and months. Of all parts of the sweater to screw up I managed to bungle the stockinette section on a circular needle. IT IS ALL THE KNIT STITCH. All I have to do is knit! Grrr. This sweater is now my nemsis project. Granted it is my first sweater ever, but it is still frustrating to have ripped out so much, and done so much unknitting, and left the project laying around for so long that I have hardly anything to show for all of my hard work.


In episode 62: Head's Up, of my favey fave podcast Cast-On (http://cast-on.com/), the host Brenda Dayne talks about travel knitting. So on my spring break getaway next week I am going to take this damn sweater with me and get as close to finishing it as I can. It cannot be this difficult to knit a sweater, but this one has been a pain in my ass. I LOVE knitting it because I am so excited about the thought of having sweater that I made for myself. I love sweater and I own a closet full of sweaters and hoodies so I really want to get this one done so I can start a new collection of sweaters, handknit sweaters. I was of course going to take knitting with me anyway, but I just assumed that I would take Happy Scarf with me since it is knitting up so quickly and it needs to get off of my needles, and then maybe a couple of other small projects.

After listening to Cast-On last night I knew that my travel knitting HAD to be this sweater. It is time to have it out with this sweater!

As if I wasn't excited enough about

• Getting out of town
• Going on a vacation by myself 
• Visiting a yarn shop so I can smell yarn and speak knitting
• Photographing the Botanical Gardens
• Visiting a couple museums
• NOT WORKING

Now I can also be excited about all of the amazing knitting I am going to accomplish on my little trip. I honestly feel that if I had some time to sit down and just fiddle with this sweater by working through the confusing parts and tackling the correcting of errors I have made as well as learning how to knit cables for the cable section then I will defeat this pattern and be able to move on to bigger and better sweater-knitting adventures! 

It has been a long time since I have a few hours to sit down and dedicate to just one thing without having to worry about all of the reading I have to do for biology, the laundry that needs washing up, family matters, etc. I want to take it slow for a few days and just sit in my hotel room staring at knitting and fondling yarn while listening to my podcasts or a book on tape or something. I am going to forget the world, and remember knitting.