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.

I'm terribly cross with myself. I took a brand new project, the Reynolds Odyssey Wedge Pullover, on vacation to New Mexico, and apparently left the pattern in the Albuquerque airport. So now I've got a bagful of lovely green yarn and no pattern. At least I got far enough on the back of the sweater during the flights that I can keep going without the pattern until I get to the neck and shoulder shaping. Then I guess I have to put it on holders and start the front.

On the bright side, there is a yarn shop that I can see the roof of from the hotel window. It is across the street and two doors down. Unfortunately it was closed today and tomorrow so I have to wait until Tuesday to check it out. Oops, make that Wednesday; I think we're going to drive up to Taos for the day Tuesday, so I'll "only" get to go to La Lana Wools that day. Bwa-ha-ha.

Meanwhile, CH has a new knitted vest. It's the Cabled Rib Vest from Men in Knits, out of Cascade 220 in a medium gray with heavy red and green heathering. I sewed the buttons on it this morning. I knit it right in front of him and he didn't even notice (although he was a bit befuddled when I was insistent that he render an opinion on buttons).

Today I experienced a knitter's true Moment of Glory. I wore my long hooded crocheted coat to the Fashion Mall and the very swishy sales clerk came up to me and said: "Can I help you with anything? Oh, you look SOOOO cute this evening-- that coat is DARLING! Where did you GET that?" I told him I made it and he said, "Oh, you did NOT-- I am SO impressed!" and fondled the bobbles.

I am kicking projects around like footballs this month. The Dashing Diamond Pullover is finished, sort of, but it turned out to be so much of a bust that I may rip the whole thing. First, I had to re-engineer the top of it because the armholes were way too deep. Then, even though I took my standard two inches off the sleeves, they ended up being outrageously long. I think this was deliberate on the part of the designer; however, in the photo, you can't see the model's hands, so who knows? Personally, I think over-long sleeves only look good on tall people, and besides, they interfere with my knitting. And as a last annoyance, the A-line is just too wide at the bottom. Even I don't need six inches of difference between bust and hip measurement anymore.

After that, I spent two weeks cranking out the Lush Shaped Cardigan from Classic Elite's Noble Fibers booklet. In stark contrast to the previous project, I'm terribly happy with the finished object. It's all warm and pink and fuzzy and it fits great. It's very low-cut, so I wear a camisole underneath it to work. My rock-star alter ego wears it out on the town sans camisole for the naughty librarian look.

Then I started Tilt. I've done the lower body sections and one of the back yokes. I fall maddeningly between sizes but I think I can adjust the width several inches during the blocking process. The yoke charts require quite a lot of concentration, though, and I've learned not to try to work on it while chatting or watching TV. I'm looking forward to the sleeves.

On a short break from Tilt, I spent two days knitting a K1,P1 rib scarf out of three balls of #40 Almond Tree Diakeito Diamusee. The browns, cream, and roses are gorgeous with my brown suede jacket.