Three more months

To my own vast surprise, I have kept up thus far on NaKniSweMoDo, aka Crazy Repetitive Stress Injury Inducing Year.

You can see in the sidebar my progress each month, the projects I've completed (OK, a few months were cheaty-ish, but not too far off the mark). Each goal--lace, seaming, cables--has been met with the giant yawning omission of one: a colorwork project.

I can't tell you how many colorwork projects I have perused on Ravelry, blogs, and in books. If I had a dollar for each one, I could have ordered all of Alice Starmore's kits plus paid for express shipping all the way from the UK. I finally decided that a colorwork sweater in a month might be too much, so I'd make a vest. I had the pattern and yarn for this one in my knitpicks shopping cart for literally five months--they kept e-mailing me hopefully, saying "The items you saved for later have now come available...hint hint." (OK, not the "hint hint" part, but the implication was there.)

I don't know what's holding me back.

But as the year draws to a close--not trying to be melodramatic here, but in less than three months it'll be 2010--this is becoming a priority.

Any suggestions for a stranded colorwork vest pattern? I'm thinking that, in the interest of time, I may want to go for sport, DK, or even worsted rather than fingering.

And while you're pondering that--check out my October project: the ubiquitous, infamous, and thoroughly well-pattern-tested Central Park Hoodie, in Jade Heather Paton's Classic Wool

The color is totally off--it's actually a beautiful heathered aqua with flecks of yellow and blue.

I can see why so many folks have made this--it's eminently practical, simple, yet fun. The easy-peasy rope cables break up the stockinette stretches. I made the first sleeve in only a few days, and finished the second sleeve last night.

I decided, after the sleeves, that I wanted to make this more challenging, or at least try something new. One goal I didn't list for NaKniSweMoDo was to steek. So I'm adapting the pattern to knit the body in the round with center front, arm, and neck steeks. I get the steek idea in theory--but as we all know, theory is far different than practice. I'll keep you updated.

Have a great week, everyone--