The Einstein coat is done. I define "done" as (1) being wearable and (2) having no needles in it. Property (2) is not redundant; the other day I had left the house without a jacket, and when I became cold, I put on the Einstein, complete with a circular needle hanging from the collar. The people at the pharmacy were rather amused.

Today I left the house without a coat AGAIN (doh!) and ended up buying a new winter coat. Now, mind you, I did not actually buy a coat BECAUSE I was cold; I bought it because it was on mega-clearance-sale and it was the perfect shape and the perfect shade of dusty purple. I was smart enough to buy it on the small side, so it should still fit me next winter. (A size 8! How cool is that!) I am really happy that I am sufficiently close to my goal weight that I can knit sweaters for myself that I expect to be able to wear long-term, instead of merely temporarily.

I finished the Wedge Pullover. It got rather larger when blocked, but it's a casual style, so it still looks good on CH. He's requested a cotton sweater for next time, though, as the wool gets rather warm in the building where he works. I thought this was a fine excuse to buy a Honking Great Pile of Classic Elite Spotlight off elann.com. Never mind that the colors I got were the ones that would look fabulous on ME...

Meanwhile, I'm nearly done with an Einstein Coat. River Wools recently offered an Einstein Coat class; a bunch of my friends were in it, so I dropped in to see their projects-in-progress, and got inspired. I had a ridiculous quantity of Jamieson's Chunky Shetland in stash and it seemed like a good use for it. I was tremendously pleased that, although at the time I bought the book I would have needed to make the largest size, I can now wear the adult Small. Comfortably. And I only had to make a couple of teensy-weensy changes. First, the underarm bulk was more than I could bear, so I sewed a short seam up each side (connecting the upper right front to the upper back, etc.) to raise the armhole. Perfect! Second, I needed to narrow the neck opening a bit, so I left fifteen bound-off stitches unsewn on each side instead of seventeen. Also perfect. I just have to finish re-knitting a sleeve and I'll be done.

Can you believe I went to La Lana Wools and didn't buy ANYTHING? Although, it was not for lack of desire. It's just that everything I wanted was a large purchase and it was not a good time for that. So I took notes for future mail orders instead. Meanwhile, I tried on the Valentina Devine jacket from the Winter VK (yes, the ACTUAL jacket photographed in the magazine) because it is ever so much prettier than the picture. The colors are all washed out in the mag photo. It actually has peach, fuchsia and yellow streaks in it, can you believe it?

I got the replacement copy of the Wedge Pullover pattern I left in the Albuquerque airport and am now almost done with the sweater. I have a little bit of seaming to do and, of course, the ENDS. The thing has quite a bit of torso torque as a result of the bias wedges, so I am anxious to see how it turns out after post-assembly wet-blocking.

Oh, and yesterday I weighed in at Weight Watchers and I have now lost all my New Mexican vacation weight gain. My leader says it's about time to set goal. I still wanted to lose nineteen more pounds, but the WW staff are dubious.