Consumerism

So, I tried to hold off on buying things during the months of July and August, and for the most part, that kind of worked. Yeah, I bought the circular hat needle in Cannon Beach, OR and then later, my legwarmer needle in Maine, and then there was the rowan calmer in Bend, OR, and the yarn for gifts in Maine. Oh, and the mission falls cotton for the baby hat for Lilia. I started off thinking that I didn't buy yarn in the summer, but really, it's that I didn't buy a crazy amount -- not that I didn't buy. However, come september-ish, I bought yarn for two sweaters in addition to a couple books and a decent amount of needles.

I cannot buy more. No more books, no more yarn, no more needles until at least the end of November -- for real this time!

I keep thinking about these books, though. The first one, The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns is just where my head is at now. I haven't even finished this first long sleeved sweater, but already I'm thinking more about how I can play around with gauge and make different types of sweaters. I'm also preoccupied right now with the idea of finishing so I'm really interested in this book: The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques. I've been thinking a lot about my sloppy-ish bind offs when binding off in pattern (actually, it's even worse when it's just purl), in addition to my awkwardness with sewing seams, and I know that one is coming up soon. I think I'm going to camp out in the bookstore soon and look closely at these books in order to think more about sweater design. I still can't get my head around a lot of aspects of it, and particularly since the pattern I'm using now has no diagrams/schematics, I feel like I'm just knitting it in the dark, hoping it will come out well. There isn't even really a good, solid picture of it in the book. In one shot, her arm is up in an awkward way, and while the other one is better, she is just sitting in a chair, it's such a small picture.

It is coming along, though being sick now makes me not want to do too much, knitting included, so I spent a lot of time in bed today, sometimes napping.

What is done, though, in addition to the back, is the collar, the left pocket, and the left front. I'm going to start the right pocket and then the right side tomorrow. I learned a few techniques to do this sweater -- single cast on (I only knew how to do double or long tail -- and didn't even realize that was what it was called), a new ssk "improved," and a couple of other things I can't remember now. Knittinghelp.com is the best.

Getting sick this week, I didn't get to make my 5x5 square for The Point. They were collecting squares to sew into baby blankets for victims of the hurricane. I'm sad that I couldn't make it. Funny story: when I told Aaron about the squares and how I was going to make one, and what the requirements for making them were, he asked "what size needles?" Maybe you'd just have to be there, but if you know Aaron, that's really funny. Funny and sweet.