No pics today

The most cursory search of the house has not turned up any AA batteries for the camera, so you'll have to wait for pictures of the excellent, newly finished Jemima. It fits better than the first one that I made, which makes me wonder if I made the wrong size that time or was not as attentive to my gauge as I should have been. The new Jemima has bracelet length sleeves, which I prefer as I am short. Most patterns are designed for tall people with gangly arms, I've decided, so I always play with the sleeve length. J#2 also features the excellent squarish buttons on its placket, as shown in a previous post.
The stitching salon is no more. I will really miss that place, even though I had not been dropping in as often as before. The last day was Saturday. There wasn't even a closing party (clearly, it wasn't run by theatre people). I wore J#2 for the first time that day, after so many lunch hours spent working on the sweater there. Sigh. There's been talk of an informal lunch hour knitting group at the Cultural Center, but it's not the same...
I am awash in new knitting books. That is not a complaint. I recently had a birthday. I received a few Borders gift cards. Now, what would a knitter buy at Borders? Knitting books, of course (and an impulse purchase paperback, the new issue of Bust magazine, etc.)! So, I have recently acquired Fitted Knits by Stephanie Japel, No Sheep for You by the excellent Amy Singer, and the Yarn Harlot's new book (which is strictly about knitting culture and contains no patterns, alas).
Fitted Knits contains a number of interesting patterns. I've already cast on one of them (hee! This does not count as startitis since I just finished a project! I'm allowed!), a short little jacket to be worn over my new plaid cotton dress. It's darling. See, this is where a photo would be excellent. The dress has an empire waist which actually fits under my bust and not in some weird limbo area, and is in a muted yet sophisticated palette of pastels. I chose Silky Wool yarn in cedar, which is a kind of coppery color that my mom says is very similar to my hair color at present. I am doubtful. It's just flying off the needles at 4.5 stitches to the inch, which is such a relief after 7 stitches to the inch on Isabella!
I also really love a lacy tank top featured towards the front of Fitted Knits. I'm not a big lace person, but I've decided to challenge myself more in my knitting this year. Maybe I love this because I'm a sucker for spring/summer knits at this time of year.
No Sheep for You contains very good advice about swatching, fiber properties, etc. The gearhead side of knitting, as it were. The patterns are also very cool, though the sizing on many of them leaves a lot to be desired. I love Intoxicating, a silk mosaic sweater that walks the fine line between ugly and cool. The back and front have different patterns, which I do not like. Of course, I could always just make two fronts.
Just as I was thinking that I do not need more yarn (ha!), feeling pretty serious about stash reduction, I got an email from Webs in Northampton about their anniversary sale. They even have Cascade 220 on sale, which never gets marked down. Oh dear, oh dear. Things have a way of finding me. Like that dog that followed me home from school, I just happen to keep finding sales, new projects, other knitting endeavors. I was idly reading my regular knit blogs today, when I saw this shrug:
the belle shrug, by Laura Chau of cosmicplutoknits and Lettuce Knit in Toronto. She is apparently one cool lady. I'd seen another pattern of hers that I liked on her blog a few months ago, a cabled cardigan, but wasn't exactly thrilled with the whole mail order thing. Pretty funny, considering how much e-commerce is involved in my knitting. So, I broke down and called them today and ordered both. In for a penny, in for a pound, right? Except I don't know how much the patterns cost because in my excitement, I forgot to ask. Whoops. The shrug might be made as a birthday present for my mom, but it would also be a great cover up for summer garments in the office. The cardigan is obviously not a summer garment, but it is my kind of sweater. I love big, cozy sweaters. This is another of Laura's designs, the C4, knit from the top down in alpaca. Ooh! I feel like i could fall into a knitting coma just contemplating all of these things!
And if all of that isn't enough, there's also a new issue of knitting on the web up on their website. There is really only one pattern that I like this time around, but it is perfection. Again, it's a shrug.
It's knit flat and then joined to make the sleeves, which is super, super easy. And super cute.