It was the best of times…

Last night I stayed up way later than I should have, trying to finish the Jess jacket so I could see the yarn situation.  My final determination?  I’m going to be about half a ball short.  Fortunately, the store I originally got the yarn from still has some, so I’ll be able to get a new ball.  Little knits has a $25 order minimum though, so I’ll have to get a few other things (oh darn – I have to buy yarn?) And last night I did manage to finish all the major knitting (except for half of the collar) and I even managed to successfully seam the shoulders.  Did I mention that this is my first real seamed sweater?  Because it is.  I’ve spent what seems like forever rejecting any pattern that calls for seaming, and I’ve finally decided that it’s time.  Basted together the sweater fits, so lets hope my seaming doesn’t mess that up!  I’m having some collar issues too… the pattern calls for picking up stitches, which is fine, but I can’t figure out how to do so without leaving a hole because of the way the stitches lie… oh well, it will be covered up anyway!  It’s still a lovely pattern.

I’m going to set it aside while I wait for my yarn, and I’ll go ahead and start my cardigan.  I’m getting a lot of good knitting time lately, and I don’t like to interrupt my flow!  Usually my end of session breaks (3 weeks) come with lots of FOs, but the holidays really threw me off this year… all I finished was a pair of socks!

I followed a link to Phildar’s website the other day, not realizing that this was going to lead to me ordering pattern books from France.  But ah – the patterns are so lovely and fashionable!  I can’t understand why these aren’t available in the us.  You can buy (some)Phildar yarn, but the patterns seem impossible.  Here are some of my favorites:

I would have felt better about my order if the dollar weren’t so weak right now, but ah well.  It was still cheaper than getting (for example) 3 Rowan mags… and these look to be mostly free of the crazy Rowan styling that makes it impossible to see the designs.  For reasons I dont understand it was cheaper to order from France than from one of the canadian websites that sells these.  I got the ones with the english inserts because 2 semesters of college French did not exactly make me fluent.  I have plenty to keep me busy until they arrive!