Taking myself to school.

By now everyone knows about the fiscal troubles of the last owners of the company that published Interweave magazine and many others.  It is getting sorted out but in the meantime, I thought I should do a backup of all the video and other digital product that I purchased from them over the years.  As I was doing my review and backups, I was reminded that last fall, when there was a really good sale price on, I purchased several videos about weaving and spinning.  I had kind of forgotten I had them, so it was a nice surprise.

Now that school is almost back on, and that life should settle down for a bit, and that I am working to change the way I use my time, taking a video class seemed like a good way to begin.  I started watching a basic weaving class hosted by Tom Knisely .  This is a really nice beginner class and has already been well worth it.  

I had the loom warped at one time and had woven an couple inches.There were errors  I wanted to correct before I got too far so I cut it off to repair.  Cutting it off wasn't my original intention, but I couldn't see how else to resolve it.  I had planned on sorting it out with repair heddles but they did not work as well as I hoped.  Too bad I had not watched the video before now.  I could do it now with minimal trouble. Ah well.  

Over time and what with the grandkids being curious about the loom, it all sort of got messed up and I just covered it with a blanket and wished it away.  

A few weeks ago, I decided I was just going to do dishcloths which is what I really need right now, and could worry about towels when I was a wiser and smarter weaver.  Then my recent conversation with frazzledknitter helped me sort out what I needed to do to make it happen and here we are, ready to go, all tied up nice and firmly, so nothing will happen till I get to the weaving.  Which will commence next week.  The plan is working!

It was nice to begin this little adventure by taking myself to school. It is the time of year when stretching your brain is good.  Mine got a real workout today and I feel fresh and invigorated and tired, but the good kind of tired.  

Meandering Myrtle

I am not sure what happened to Friday.  I meant to post but it was late Saturday when I realized that Friday was missing and at that point, that knowing Thursday was there, was enough.

It wasn't the quiet weekend I had thought it would be.  No sleeping in at this house.  A certain young man was feeling a little hesitant about being up early all alone and needed grandma to get up to keep him company.  So grandma got up at 4:52 a.m.  Sigh.  The kids came for a quick overnite while mommy and daddy had some grownup time.  I appreciate that grownup need time too. I really really do.  I remember the way my mom and dad stood in when we needed them.  They were always there for Brian and I and the kids. Grandma's time will come when small children no longer need grandma as is the way of things.

Still, I got a lot of knitting done.  

I am so please with the way it is going.  I knit the first couple inches straight and just did the first set of decreases at the sides.  I can see how much more math dependant knitting from the bottom up is.  When you knit top down, the rate of decreases matters less.  You just keep going till you have it to fit, but this...this is requires that I know row gauge and that I know how long I want the finished sweater to be, so that decreases can be in the right place.  

Sure, I am knitting a pattern, but as usual, I also have to fit me.  I simply cannot follow the pattern. I am not built that way.  I'm also not knitting the pattern gauge.  The yarn is lace weight in the pattern.  My yarn is a sprotweight.  Very different gauges as well as the different dimensions mean math and bottom up, means much more attention needs to be paid to that math.  

But my interpretation of Myrtle is well under way and all is very good.

PS, I am knitting this off of cones of yarn meant for weavers. Up till this afternoon in the heat of the day, I wasn't aware of the oil that is usually put into coned yarns.  As I put it away for the evening, the oil smell was there and I noticed that my hands are so wonderfully soft.  I can't rub my eyes though.      

I am tired.  Maybe it is a leftover from the kids, but I have had a couple days now.  You would think I would be close to well rested.  But no.  I had a nap after lunch that I did not mean to take and I have been feeling thick headed ever since.  

There hasn't been any knitting activity.  Seeing how fall is so close to here, I decided that it was a good time to do a deep clean.  Two rooms, no, make it three, are substantially done but for cleaning the floors and having the walls washed.  I'm going to get someone to do that for me.  I am not a good bet climbing ladders anymore.  The laundry is also done.  

And my ginger is half done.  I have had some lovely fresh ginger for a couple days now, and with my thick head, it seemed like a good time to get it ready for hot tea in case a cold should decide to come along.

You know,I have been sitting here, feeling like I didn't accomplish anything today, but I did.  I did a lot.  And I think I am good with that.

Yay me.   I will find a way to fit some knitting in tomorrow.  I need to knit like I need to breathe.

And Away We Go

After finding the yarn and needles, I took the time to cast on my version of Myrtle.  What you see here is the ribbing...of the bottom edge.

Yesirree, Myrtle is a bottom up sweater and wouldn't you know it, I have to go and fall in love with a bottom up sweater, when for months I have been fearing knitting from the bottom up.  My fondness for Myrtle is more powerful  than my worry about not being able to try it on as I go.  Yes I could have changed it all to knit a variation from the top down.  I did think of that a lot, but sometimes, the answer is to just boldly and blindly jump in at the deep end.  I did the calculation based on my gauge swatch in the lace pattern and cast on that amount of stitches.  If the ribbing is too tight, I can pop it off and re-knit it later.  It is much more important that the lace body fit right. 

It was going well, and I cannot begin to say how nice it is to work with wool again after a summer of bast fibres, but as the photo shows, the ribbing is black.  I would still like to be knitting it, but even my very well lit (big light in ceiling fan) living room is not lit well enough for black.  Time to do something else.

So, here I am, doing the writing in the evening.  I'm am seriously going to work harder to do this in the evenings regularly.  Mornings are very natural for me to write, but it takes a lot of time.   I want to work hard to build a better routine for myself and mornings, being my best and most energetic period of the day, are very important to making and keeping new routines.    I need mornings for other important things, like weaving and spinning the mass of fibre I have.  And sewing.  I am developing a larger stash of fabric than I have room for. 

Knitting is easy.  I will always knit.  Since those epic days when I first understood knitting, I knit through the highest points of my life and the darkest lowest days.  Knitting is like coming home to something safe and comfortable and cozy.  I will always knit. 

All the other stuff, is work of a sort.  It is work that I dearly want to do, and to understand at its most basic level, but it is work none the less.  The things that are work are things I need to trick myself into doing, to force myself out of my comfort zone. My friend and I were talking about this today while spinning and I think starting with her suggestion of small increments of  weaving and spinning, done early in the day when my head is clear and my will is strong, ably abetted by coffee/tea will be a sensible place to start. 

Sewing is easier.  When I have no pants, I will sew. 

I was sort of planning all this a while ago and then kids came for a summer vacation, and shortly after that, they came while their mom was doing family things far, far away, and my plans of changing my routine just never really got off the ground.  Now these things are done, and I am here back to just me and it is time.

Just like Myrtle, I need to jump straight in with both feet.  If you hear screaming, ignore it.  It is just the sound of me conquering my little fears. 

Treasure Found!

I didn't find the bag of yarn for Myrtle yesterday.  I thought it was going to simply be the case of looking in one of three places I may have tucked it, but nope.  Not in any of those places.  I looked in all of the weird places i may have put it thinking I wasn't going to be needing it for a while, but no.  I checked its source box in the stash.  No. I gave up and knit on the blanket.  

This morning, on my way back from spinning, I decided the next place to look was under things that it could have gotten stuck under.   I looked under chairs, a very plausible hiding place because of the long skirts.  I looked under the loveseat.  I looked under its matching chair.  I looked under every piece of furniture in my study and bedroom.  Nope.  

So then I went back to the livingroom to tuck my various bags of projects back to  beside the sofa  and there, jammed between shelf and sofa back, but not tucked under anything, was my bag of cones.  

There will be knitting here today.

Just like that.

And just like that, the kids are back home and within the hour, their mom will be arriving at the airport.  I will miss the kids whole bunches.  I will miss tea with Cassie after Marcus is in bed.  I will miss looking at Pinterest with her and her giggling.  I will miss having to tell Marcus his bedtime Paw Patrol story where he corrects me and tells me where I'm telling it wrong.  I will miss his ardent interest in everything and his cute stubbornness and determination to figure it out himself.  I will miss his giggles when he gets a case of the sillies. Till the next time.  

What I won't miss is the noise and the sticky.  Honestly, everything in my house is sticky and I don't always understand why.  If I could touch my ceiling, I am pretty sure it would be sticky too. It should be noted that the landlord...well, survived.  He was just starting a new job and I was concerned but he made it. He loves his niece and nephews, do not mistake that, but he loves them more when he gets to go to their house to play with them.

I am sure I will find socks, and underwear stuck under things in their bedroom, and I am sure there is at least one toy left behind, but it will all get sorted in time.  For now, all I really want to find is my knitting.

I said that I was going to start Myrtle, and I meant to.  I cannot find the bag with the swatch, the needles and the yarn.  It is here somewhere but I just don't know where.  

I have been snoozing since the kids left with their dad left and now I am going on a serious quest, a yarn quest. Because I really deserve something new to knit.

 

Ta Daaaaaaaa

Ta Daaaaa

It isn't striking looking at all.  It's really rather plain and simple but let me tell you, it is the most wonderful thing to have on your head and neck.  It is going to be just right for wearing in the car on chilly winter mornings.  It is long enough to have a puddle of cowl at your neck when you have it pulled up on your head, but not so long that when you have it all down around your neck, it is too much fabric for comfort.

It is just the perfect thing.

There is some yarn left.

Not enough to do anything serious with, but it may work for colourwork on mittens or sock tops.  Even though the yarns were very close in length, I wasn't at all surprised that I ran out of the Silk Cloud first.  The mohair silk blend doesn't have the same slight stretch that Adam and Eve has and its grabbiness meant that I was always consuming just a bit more the Silk Cloud.  

I used every single molecule of the gorgeous Silk Cloud, running out about halfway through the bind off.  I thought about pulling back, but this is an item for heavy winter use.  I didn't feel that it's use would be affected by the missing slight haze enough to warrant pulling back mohair.  I would rather tease out knots that go through pulling mohair back.

The kids and I did some experimenting last week.  Well, I did.  The kids painted letters for their rooms.  I painted some fabric.

Almost looks like a field with a distant horizon.  Needs a lot of work though.

When I lived in Spruce Grove, my friends there did all sorts of hand work.  They loved embroidery and some really splendid pieces.  We talked a lot about different kinds of embroideries and that reawakened my interest in the craft.  I purchased some really lovely books by Trish Burr and Kazuko Aoki and the life changing Embroidered Landscapes of Judy Wilford.

Most of the others are really just inspiration books, but this last was something I wanted, with my whole heart and soul. When I moved here to my small prairie town, to this house with it's lovely bright bay windows, I knew I could have it.  She uses silk chiffon overlays to colour her backgrounds, but finding silk chiffons in my price point is difficult so I had to cast around for other ideas.

Watercolours are proving the answer to my quest and this is my first test.  I've never been an artist, not by a long shot but I can do well enough to colour the back of distant landscapes.  Foreground embroidery will provide prairie detail.  There is going to be more experimenting with paint on fabric before I start working on the piece, but it is nice to know that I can get where I want even with my terribly small, non existent skillset.

For today though, I am knitting and it looks like an inside day so I have decided that I am going to treat myself and start a new sweater.

Myrtle, here I come.

Back on the back burner.

If you recall, a few weeks ago, I picked up my winter overcoat project and talked about needing more yarn.  I think I said that I ordered from Macauslands again.  This is such a distinctive yarn, unlike anything in my stash and I really wanted the character of the yarn to be the same all the way through my jacket.  The yarn arrived yesterday.

I had two prospective colours that I thought would give me what I wanted.  

I choose poorly. 

I didn't want to just choose black.  That is my fallback, but I didn't want to go there without trying something else.  I had two really good choices with the browns and I just picked the wrong one.  It is a beautiful foresty green brown heather with undertones of rusty red and is very pretty, but my yarn is a more teal brown heather. I felt that sticking to two heathered colours was the way to go.  But no.  

I did debate closing my eyes and knitting it, colour be darned, but I simply cannot do that.  

I went trolling through the colours on my sample card, keeping in mind that they are only samples, and found the colour that works the best with my colour is teal.  I'd be willing to bet they don't have teal in the three ply.  I'm also not sure that I want to have teal on my winter outer coat.  It would be striking in colourwork, but it isn't quite the look I want as colour blocks.

It feels like my current choices are going to be natural brown and black, if they have black.  (Not all colours are available in three ply at all times.)  Plus, I have to decide if I want to mail order again.  

Before I go weeping in my tea/coffee, this isn't all bad.  Not at all.  It is a strikingly pretty heathered yarn and is going to make something fantastic.   If it doesn't go for mittens and hats, it will be great as a warm vest or as a sweater for some little boy who thought he would like a heavy warm sweater for going to school in the fall. 

So the winter coat project is back on the back burner, till the right yarn comes.  The goal for next week is to put the oversweater to the forefront of my knitting.  There is a distinct chill in the morning air this morning, a reminder that summers end isn't that far away and that this particular sweater is becoming a need, rather than a want.

 

It is 6 o'clock in the morning and all is still and quiet.  That just doesn't happen a lot around here.  I don't want to disturb anyone so I am just going to stay very still and quiet and  type.

Very good progress on my little cowl.  It is such sumptuous knitting that it is easy to keep in my hand.  I've got it to about a third of the yarns used up, so I ought to be just right for stash dash,which finishes up on the 24th.  

These yarns are the perfect sort of pairing.  One is 325m and the other, just the very smallest bit less, clocking in at 300 m.  I'm just going to knit till it is all gone.

More of It.

Tuesday arrived in haste and yet, the day itself seemed long.  In the evening I had to check if it was actually Tuesday.  The kids are starting to struggle a little.  They don't realize just how much they miss momma but they fall apart for such little things.  Grandma is trying to give them the space they need to be sad.  It helps a bit when they talk to dad but right now, they just want mamma.

I wish yesterday had given me more knitting, but the lack of it may be why the day went on forever.  Today will be better.  Today there will be more knitting.

I don't know how it looks to you but it feels marvelous.  Still like kittens.  I think part of what I was disatisfied about was how strong the much lighter colour of the silk thread is than the Adam and Eve.  

My original vision of these two yarns was all about the ghost of the silvery warm haze on the surface and I think I just wasn't quite prepared for the real thing.  The haze doesn't show up immediately.  It sort of shows up as it worms its way out between the warm dark base.  Once it sat in the bag for a few months, it had all popped out to show what it would truly be, and that is exactly what I was looking for.  

I didn't really notice the difference in how it looked newly knit versus slightly used but it is very apparent to me now.  It's easy luxurios knitting, suitable for knitting while watchimg kids play.  There will be much more of that today.  

Kittens

In the continuing story of pants, we found the missing pair under the chair where a certain Mr. Someone's bag was sitting when he first got to Grandma's house.  Sigh.  We did get another pair though so no matter what happens, we are golden.

While the kiddies were chasing each other at a food play place, I ripped back the cowl/hood  to the line where I had separated to knit two layers.  I picked it all up and put it back together again and feels exactly right.  

It is so soft, so luxurious, it feels like knitting kittens, teeny tiny soft baby kittens.  

Every coin Two sides.

Last night as the kids were getting ready for bed, Marcus realized that he had left his pyjama pants at home.  In the way that only a four years old's heart can be broken, his was obliterated and he was very upset, almost panicking, because everybody would see his shorts.  He cried just heartbroken because he wasn't comfortable.  He said we needed to go to the store to get some pants, right now.  In the end he wrapped himself up in Great, Great Grandpa Diederichs blanket, because he said it felt like grandpa was hugging him.

And to the morning, this self same four year old isn't getting dressed, is quite happily running about in his underwear and pyjama shirt.  He wants to go to the store that way.

Oh to be four.  

I made a decision on Friday.  I am going to try to make my stash dash goal. The blanket will wait.  It's like dishes.  No one ever does it for you, only knitting is much, much more fun.

I am still a bit uninspired by socks after a winter's worth of them so I pulled out my other small project waiting for finishing,  a project I am going to call There should be umlauts.  

The pattern is called HÜJ TÜB and that is exactly what it is, a Huge Tube.  I wanted something for winter so that when it is cold, I have something that I can pull up over my head and yet wear comfortably around my neck when it isn't.  I thought of various smoke rings and other wimple type wear, but the simplicity of this pattern suits what I wanted.  You can make one out of any yarns and that is what I needed.  

The dark yarn is RCY Adam and Eve in Ebony and the delicate mohair silk is Shibui Silk  Cloud in Caffeine.  I started with the two held together and somewhere along the way, felt strongly that I wasn't getting the best from the combination of the yarns, so I separated them and decided to make a two layer project, finishing with the layers joining at the other end.

The top overlay of the Shibui was going to be a nice little lace pattern, nothing too fancy, with good stretch characteristics like Ice Queen from Knitty.  I didn't have that sorted yet.  It is a lovely idea.  Lace overlays are so delicate and pretty.  

At the same time, I wonder why I didn't like the two together.  They are really wonderful combined.  Touching the fabric they make is like petting a newborn kitten.  

It is such a delicate haze that softens the strong colour of the Adam and Eve, like an early morning fog over fields. The more I look at this and touch it, the more I love that first bit.  If the world worked perfectly the way I wish it to, I would knit a whole sweater with these two yarns combined.  They are just that good together. I can't afford to do that sadly, but I can do a neck and head warmer.  

I wonder now, why I was not satisfied with what I started.  Looking at the tube as I knit, part of me wonders if I should go back, go simple and just knit the tube plain, out of the combination of delicious yarns.  I might.

If I was four, I am sure I would be just as excited either way.  As a grandmother, making sure Marcus is wearing pants to the store is a given and a chore.  As a knitter, thankfully I have endless choices. 

Full Obsession Mode.

So here I sit having survived week number two of babysitting in August.  That makes it sound really bad doesn't it and it hasn't been.  It is so much easier to be able to do this in my own home, sleeping in my own bed, doing at least a few of my own things.  These are very good kids, and they have been so god, unless they are tired and when they are tired, they go to bed really fast.  Some days are a bit harder than others, but isn't that just like normal?

I sit out front by the garage, and have a coffee and knit, and they go up and down the sidewalk exploring.  Cassie can go to the end of the block and Marcus can go to where I have to lean forward to be able to see him from where I sit.  It works well.  They feel responsible and trusted and have nice safe adventures.  Occasionally, the little girl from next door comes out to play and then all sorts of fun happens.

Meanwhile back at the ranch,grandma knits. I am getting a lot done on my blanket.  There is only one problem with it and it is only a problem if I think it to be.  

I have once again been participating in Stash Dash.  Last summer with my long adventure, I missed my goal by a bit and this year, with a smaller and very reachable goal, I have only a few hundred metres left, two to be precise.  There is lots of time to finish something.  So long as I set the blanket aside.  The blanket consumes me.  Putting it down is a difficult thing.  I haven't even thought of the two summer sweaters in days.  The green jacket is only for when I am done the large needles or when I feel the need for wool.  The blanket is all.

Still, I am going to give it a good go. I really would like to see myself hit that goal. There is a pair of socks I could be working on, and should be working on, that would take care of things.  There is a cowl in the works that is just knitting a tube. Both of these are lovely knits, easily done while child minding. There is no reason not to get to goal.  So long as I set the blanket aside.

That is the problem.  Setting the Sock Monkey Cabin Blanket aside while in full obsession mode is hard.  

It was  very long day.We had company this morning for spinning and I desperately needed to get the house in some kind of order.  Early was the only way to go.

And now because grandma is pooped right out, the children decided that they didn't want to go right now to bed,they wanted to go in half an hour.  I am just playing relax music and hoping that the last is out.  I think she is, but you know how that goes.

I ought to have taken photos but oh well.  I will leave all that for tomorrow.There is big thunder here this evening, so I am going to sign off and shut down.  no point losing a computer in a direct strike.

Sweater weather

I don't know about anybody else but yesterday was sweater weather for me, more than. I put on a sweater, a cowl and socks to get warm.  I wore them most of the day.  

It made me feel like knitting bigger heavier garments.  I spent the day working on my coat.

It looks odd.  The sleeve is just so outsize but when I try it on, it fits just about right.  I want this to be comfortable over other sweaters and to be a good looking top layer in place of a purchased winter coat.  I haven't bought a winter coat because layering wool sweaters is much much warmer than any coat out there.  And the fit! Even my worst sweater fits much much better than the best coat on the market.  

What I have needed is a top sweater knit to be a top sweater.  I am knitting this out of the wonderful hearty yarn I picked up on PEI last summer.  The only problem was that I worried I was going to run out of yarn.  And the more I worked on this sleeve, the more likely that looked.  Each sleeve is going to take more than a skein each.  

So yesterday, I took the matter in hand.  I ordered more yarn.  Since there was zero chance of a same dyelot, I went with a very heathered brown grey colour.  It was the best choice with the gorgeous green I have.  

So let's all keep hoping that the sweater will fit as planned and that the sleeve fits as well once it us done.  

The continuing story

of an obsession.

I knit a bit here and there over the long

Isn't that cool?  I am into the long middle and am having the time of my life.   It is silly how much fun I am having with this.  As you can see, it is a double stranded knit, on large needles and I am not really into very large needles.  Is this what they mean by suffering for your art?

It is a good opportunity for me to learn not to tense my hands so much on large needles and thinking about that, consciously relaxing my hands around these 9 mm tips, is making a difference.  Not sure why I do that, other than it is the stress of holding large things with some added 'I can't hold these things forever' thrown into the mix. 

I have made one small change to the pattern.  The second section of white on the border, after the red rows, is slightly shorter (2 rows) than the pattern calls for.  Two more rows would have made that part out of scale just enough to be bothersome but not enough out of scale that you could tell what was wrong.  I don't think it is a pattern issue.  Not at all.  This is pretty clearly a knitter issue. My rows gauge isn't quite what the designer got.  It's a blanket so it doesn't matter.  I guess I did make one other change.  I am making it a bit wider too.  The landlord is tall.  Size matters if you are a big guy in a world of small lap blankets.

He was having coffee while I was working on it yesterday, and a look crossed his face.  He says 'Oh, I get it.  It's a giant sock.'  I did not tell him this blanket was for him.  He had chosen a rather different pattern and I had a different yarn set aside, but I just don't think that in the long haul, a wool blanket is what he needs.  He is  bachelor and likely to remain so unless some smart cookie snaps him up (She would have to do the snapping) and he would eventually launder the wool in the machine and ruin it.  He wouldn't mean to.  He would just forget. 

There wasn't much time for huge amounts of time spent knitting though.  My sister stopped overnight on her way on a long winding vacation with no fixed route and my brother popped in for coffee before he watched his son in his final race of the season.  His son races motorcycles, hence the quick trip up here. 

The rest of the time, was spent getting ready for my munchkins to come visit again for the week.  My darling granddaughter hates me taking her picture and usually I don't (unless she is trying on a sweater) and I  respect that, but sometimes I get  little trigger happy. I want to remember her, just as she is right now, scolding grandma fearlessly. 

More than anything, I hope this little girl, and all my grandsons too, hold on to their childhood fearlessness as they take on the world.  It is a different kind of continuing story, fully their story, but I hope it plays out well and for a very long time to come.

Obsession Two

Hmmmm, very interesting.  The Timber Cardigan might be very interesting.  Must think on it.

Obsession is a funny thing.  It can happen when no one is looking and for the least unexpected things.  I mean the healthy sort that drives and focuses not the bad kind that consumes a life.  And then again...

I had another little obsession for the last few weeks.  I stayed for Tuesday knitting at the library a couple weeks ago.  One of the ladies was working on a blanket.  Not just a plain blanket and yet very simple.  It was a called the Sock Monkey Cabin Blanket.

I saw it and fell in love with it.  I'm not really into ragg like yarns and yet for this kind of thing, with the strong contrast of the red and the crisp well defined white.  I fall all over myself wanting it.  Over the last weeks, I have been so close to ordering yarn for it but I wanted to see what the big box stores had for price.  Yesterday the kids and I did the shopping we needed to do and wouldn't you know it.  Yarn for just such a project as a Sock Monkey Cabin Blanket of my very own fell right into our cart. 

It is actually perfect knitting for with the kids here.  The yarn is an acrylic so is eminently washable and easy care.  It is double stranded so knitting should go fast or at least give the feeling of fast.  It is just  2 x 2 rib so no need for a pattern beyond the red and white border. It is large but in a grocery bag, will be easy to drag to playgrounds and spray water parks or even to the back deck while the kids chase a ball in the back yard. 

I am knitting this, not for me but for the landlord here.  He could use a big blanket in the fall.  I just needed to knit it to clear out this little obsession from my system.

I have this yarn

So I have this yarn

It's a really great yarn in the prettiest colour ever.  It's from my trip last summer and I doubt that I will be going so far again.   I want the sweater to be special, that every time I wear it I will think of that oh so very pretty long drive and the marvelous time I hd at the Briggs & Little Store.  

I m having a terrible time choosing a sweater.  Terrible.  It almost keeps me up nights.  I have wandered through the searches for ganseys, through searches via what other people have made with the yarn, through searches from my favourites.  I just can't seem to settle on what to make with this special yarn and I don't want this quandary to drag on forever.  I want to wear this yarn in sweater form this winter.

For a long while, I thought of the Weekender, but I am not a big fan of the look of reverse stockinette, mostly because mine isn't always even and I would have to change the wide neckline to make it work.  I loved Gridlines and thought I had it till I realized it was designed for fingering weight yarn.  Same for Rusty Tuku. I love Rusty Tuku so much it may be worth the bother to do the math but I still wouldn't do the reverse stockinette.  I may have even decided on this one at one point but it is a measure of my uncertainty that I am still trying to sort it out. 

In a way, I wish that I could obsess over a different yarn for a while, because you see I have this yarn...