I'm thinking of coming out of my latest Big Black Funk. It started when I discovered that ThreadBear is moving to MICHIGAN. Then a few days later, CH and I sat down and did a real honest-to-goodness budget and discovered that I cannot make any more major yarn purchases for the next twenty years. I would like to blame this on the fact that our car insurance just doubled, no doubt due to our Misadventures in Driving over the last couple of years. However, that is really only the last straw after years of poor spending habits and chronic inattention to the state of our finances. So, I am looking for a Real Job to pay down the credit cards and free up some yarn money.

Meanwhile, I have started teaching my crochet class at River Wools and it is Big Fun. This week I am writing a scarf pattern with a simple lacy diamond insertion to teach my students how to read a pattern. I will post it here when I'm finished. CH has agreed to test-stitch it, bless his fuzzy little heart.

Don't get me wrong–I love knitting, and I'm not going to stop. But I am having an affair. I am cheating on my knitting: with crochet.

I have finished the Summer Breeze cardigan except for a few ends, and over the weekend I crocheted a Fiber Trends Crochet Crusher Hat out of Provence as a shop model for River Wools. I ordered myself several new crochet books from amazon.com. Then I started a scarf out of Jamieson & Smith jumper-weight Shetland wool from the VKOG Crochet Scarves Book, and this morning I started the Sweet Treat cardigan from Family Circle Easy Crochet out of off-white Classic Elite Lush, which I found for $4 a ball at Susan's Summer Yard Sale of Yarn (a.k.a. Mass Avenue Knits). Not only can I not be faithful to my craft, I can't even be faithful to a specific project.

More from KNN, your Knitting News Network...

The headlining crochet lace cardigan is from a free pattern I picked up at Hobby Lobby. Since Hobby Lobby only had the Spanish version (what's that about, here in Whitesville, IN?), I was afraid I was going to have to dig out my old Spanish-English dictionary, but as it happens, the Summer Breeze pattern was available in English online. I have the body finished, the shoulder seams sewn, the body edging added, and one sleeve done. I really, really need this finished so I can wear it over the spaghetti-strap Isaac Mizrahi jersey dress I bought at Target. (You can only get it online in black, but mine is hot orchid pink with blue-purple trim. It also goes nicely with my also-unfinished Charlotte's Web Shawl.)

I am awash in knitting-related news items, so here are the headlines:

• Hope and Lana have an Indianapolis Acquisition Expedition


• Purple Cash Iroha obtained due to ThreadBear KFI clearance sale


• Second sleeve added to Intricately Cabled V-Neck Pullover


• Charlotte's Web shawl cast off and pre-blocked


• River Wools opens in downtown Terre Haute


• Crochet lace cardigan begun
  
• Lana to teach beginning crochet class at River Wools!!!

I have successfully set in one sleeve of the NGICVNP in only two attempts, but now I have to make myself do the other one. I've lost interest again because I discovered that this sweater currently fits me just fine. Yes, I realize that is customarily the goal of knitting a sweater; however, since the weather is now getting too warm for long sleeve sweaters, and I intend to be a yet-smaller size by fall, I don't know if I will ever get to wear it. Probably it will be okay with a reblocking, or I may even put it through the dryer (after experimenting on a swatch). Good thing I'm largely a "process knitter."

By the way, can anybody explain why the row gauge of the front and back were altered by blocking, but not the row gauge of the sleeves? I had to re-knit the sleeve caps as a result. Also, note that the sleeve shaping given in the pattern is just plain WRONG: the specified gauge can't possibly yield the measurements from the schematic. I had to change the number of stitches at the armhole and recalculate the rate of increase.

Meanwhile, I have been cranking away madly on a Koigu Charlotte's Web shawl in sunset colors. I ran out of color #4 and had to start #5 early, so I'm hoping I don't run out of #5. But if worst comes to worst, I have another three skeins of #5 in the house in a different but similar dye lot which I could use for the edging and fringe. They were intended for socks, but I can rob a half-skein without causing problems.

Oh, and a bonus: I did some Actual Paying Work last week, so now I have a little yarn money to spend. :)