can I knit this sweater? Can I finish it in another week? That’s going to be about all the time I have before work begins on a secret project with a tight deadline that I really need to meet.

Fortunately so far I haven’t hit any major roadblocks—the sleeves are done

and while out tonight (er, last night, at this point) I worked up a swatch of the motif that’s going to appear at the hem.

I had to make some minor adjustments to it so it’ll flow well on the actual sweater, but I cast on and worked the first round and it looks like it’ll fit just fine. But I’ll never get it done in time if I don’t go knit it, so I’m off to see if I can knock out a few more rounds before bed.

But before that, because we haven’t had Caturday in forever,

Much as I appreciated compliments on the collar I’d done up on Thursday, it really did need to come out. Here’s why:

This is a million times better! The three cables on each side prevent it from being too square and blocky, and the 2×2 rib isn’t heavy and distracting like the 4×3 was. Ten short rows added into the back of the neck make it just flip back on itself, or it can be flipped up to ward off a chilly breeze. Er, not that it would be much help when there’s still no sleeves to be had; as predicted I’ve run short on yarn, but a new skein should be here on Monday. In the meantime I can figure out a plan of attack for the sleeves and math out the other sizes to perhaps get some test knitters started.

Or I could, you know, goof off and play with kittens for the rest of the weekend.

Actually in this case I am in work mode—between the internship, planning out the upcoming festival season, and working on design stuff, I haven’t had a moment to myself all week. But that’s okay, because I’m getting lots accomplished and planning some really neat trips for the next couple of months!

So I went to Teva’s on Wednesday and we worked on doing the finishing on a few pieces for her lace book, and I gotta say it’s a good thing that I love mattress stitch and end weaving and button choosing, because there was a lot of this:

and this:

and this:

It took me all day to get things just right (with only one incident of putting something together wrong—I accidentally managed to put the collar on backwards and upside down, on my first attempt), but in the end I had a really pretty vest to show for it.

In two weeks we’ll do the photoshoot for this and I think a couple other pieces, which should be fun.

On the designing front, I’ve started in on the first of the pullovers, the striped lace/cable one:

It’s coming along just fine, although there are a handful of elements that I still need to figure out, especially in regard to the armhole shaping. I had planned on working the armholes seamlessly, but I think doing that may give me a problem when it comes to splitting the neckline and trying to keep the pattern repeats lined up properly; if I start working back and forth where the neckline needs to start, while still working all pieces simultaneously, I’m going to end up with an extra row on one side of the neck, and in such a complex stitch pattern it’s going to be very obvious. But it shouldn’t be a problem if I split at the armholes and work the back, fronts, and sleeve caps separately. I hope.

If it works out even half as well as the waist decreases did, I’ll be pleased—look at how neat and tidy this is:

It’ll be a major pain to chart out and explain in pattern, but it’s so easy to work and the effort is well worth it for such a smooth effect.

The only other thing I have to share with you are our new foster kittens, Nano and Pekoe:

(Pekoe is the orange one, of course!)