Out of Exile

I really need to learn not to put off the parts of projects that I dread the most. I finished all of the pieces for the brown blob at the beginning of December and only had the button band left. Hating button bands I worked on these yummy alpaca mitttens for my sister. 

Bella's Mittens Misti Alpaca in Chunky: camelback

For my mom I decided to make another Dragonfly Wings shawl. She's allergic to wool so I used Deborah Norville's Serenity Garden Yarn. It's 100% Dralon Microfiber (whatever that is.) I've read a lot of reviews about this yarn splitting, and I could see how that would be an issue, but I didn't really have any problems with it. I don't like it as much as some of the other yarns I use, but it is a nice option for when I can't use wool.

I was really happy with the stripes that the yarn made. It looks great with this shawl.

Dragonfly Wings Deborah Norville Serenity Garden: Hibiscus

Finally I couldn't put off the button band any long so on December 21 I finally did my seams and cast on the button band. (I should point out that I was celebrating Christmas with my family on December 23 so I had a mere 2 days to finish this sweater.) I knew I would be cutting it close with the amount of yarn I had left, but I was hopeful I could finish it. Unfortunately I ran out of yarn with 4 rounds left to go on my button band. I quickly ran to the store, but not surprisingly Wal-mart doesn't have a good selection of yarn. I tried running to Ben Franklin but they only had some nasty acrylic brown stuff that I didn't think would go well with the Knit Picks Wool of the Andes I'd used on the rest of the sweater. I thought about an IOU, but the yarn I need won't be available until the end of January. Some quick thinking and faster knitting and by the end of the night I had a hat.

Ramstar Falls Hat Homespun

I'll order more yarn the next time I place a KnitPicks order and will finish the brown blob for Christmas 2014. This brings me to the title of today's post. Last year after Christmas I cast on for the Fogarty Creek Blazer. I finished both sleeve and a few inches on the body of the sweater when I felt the urge to knit lace. I managed to resist the urge for a while, but as spring turned to summer the idea of knitting a heavy wool sweater became less and less desirable. Finally when I couldn't tolerate it any more the green sweater was banished to the stash box. Banished feels like a harsh term since the sweater didn't really do anything wrong, but since I've completed five projects, countless socks, and all but the button band on another sweater banishment is probably the right term. Lately our high has been hovering somewhere in the single digits with windchill pushing the temperature to -30 some days it's the perfect time to be working on a heavy wool sweater. I finished the back through waist chart and am making good progress on the charts leading up to the armscye.