NaKniSweMoDo Madness

My inspiration for joining the insanity that is NaKniSweMoDo was threefold:

1) When I moved to Seattle I had to buy two huge bins that fit under my bed to house my stash and one of those bins was devoted entirely to “whole garment quantity” lots of yarn. While it may not look like too much (that bin’s not too deep, right?), the bin on the right represents ELEVEN possible garments. Oh, and I just remembered another sweater’s worth in the closet. I simply do not have room for another bin under my bed, and I’m sure as hell not stashing my yarn in the terrifying body-hiding-cavities in our basement. Therefore, the only logical course of action, which, of course has been the case for the past year as well, is to stop buying yarn and finally knit the stash down. Check.

2) The past few months have been full of distractions in my personal life that seem to have carried over into my knitting life. At one point I was knitting or finishing five different sweaters, not to mention the various hats and mittens I’ve been playing with. All of this is to say that right now I’m overwhelmed with UFOs/WIPS and desperately want to finish them before starting anything new.

Autumn Rose is just as gorgeous and enthralling as ever, but a little too fiddly to want to work on it every day. Nonetheless, it was the first knit I picked up in 2009 and I will finish it by January 31st. How’s that for a bold statement? I’ve just got most of a sleeve and the upper body and neck to finish up in the next 3 weeks. No problem, right?

The Twisted Stitch Sweater is mocking me from my knitting basket. I know I can finish it–I just have one front and the sleeves to go–but my motivation dried up when winter hit. I’m thinking this will be my March sweater–finished in time to enjoy in the spring and summer.

And lastly, a previously unblogged sweater, the Karabella Cabled Cardigan, also known as KK183, knit from the heartbreakingly beautiful Beaverslide Dry Goods Worsted in Mink. I love this sweater but I’m not sure the yarn is quite right for it–it’s all sproing and no drape at this gauge, if you know what I mean. I’m going to knit the back at least and see whether it’ll be like wearing body armor before I decide to scrap it.

3) My final reason for joining NaKniSweMo? Remember when that huge storm hit the Pacific Northwest just before Christmas and shut the entire city of Seattle down? Well, that was the day our ancient oil furnace chose to run out of oil, which meant that between a leaky house and an apparently leaky heating system (my kitchen utensil drawer was kept delightfully toasty….argh), we’d burned through $450 of oil in about a month and a half, while keeping the thermostat set to 66. If I owned this house, I’d rip that furnace out in about 30 seconds, but as it is, we’ve resorted to using space heaters in the rooms we’re using and I’ve taken to sleeping under a second down comforter. So yeah, I can definitely stay warm by knitting sweaters for less than $300 a month, especially since I already bought most of the yarn. That’s like knitting for free, right? Right.