I have been a Busy Kitty. Not only did I buckle down and get a Real Job, I finished a sweater! I knit Trish in eight days, start to finish. And that INCLUDES weaving in the ends. I accomplished this by following sage advice from Hope: I started a project where I really, desperately, wanted to have the finished object. And I have certainly enjoyed wearing it. Maddeningly, it is already starting to get a little large on me. But hey, I had enough yarn left over to knit it again, and I probably will next spring. I think I can duplicate the little changes in shaping that I added (it was a straight-sided tee, which never flatters me, so I "fixed" it).

Now I am cranking right along on the Debbie Bliss Hooded Aran Pullover. Luckily, I got the Real Job before the Cotton Denim Aran yarn went up at elann.com, plus I had a chunk of store credit from a return some months ago. I dawdled and didn't buy it until mid-afternoon the day it went for sale, and the medium blue shade I was going to get had sold out already, so I'm knitting it in the lightest blue; but actually, I think I'm happier with the light blue than I would have been with the medium. I've knit both sleeves and most of the back. Again, I really want to have the finished sweater by the time it gets cool.

Oh, and in case I wasn't busy enough, I joined a rock band. All together now, everybody: "You did WHAT?"

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!!!