I'm rather ashamed that this is still a WIP! I fell in love with the beatnik sweater the first tiem i saw it. I was super excited to knit it, as not only would it be my first pullover, but it would also be my first seamed item. I also wanted to try my hand at dying the wool. I started out with a pretty off-white, and tried to get a nice dark orange. I wound up with a retina searing coral. I'm not totally sold on the color, as much as I enjoy the brightness. I do have some fabulous lipstick that matches, but I'm afraid it might make me resemble a tomato. If all else fails, I'm sure I can overdye it (since I'm such an expert now). I'll decide if I want to keep it that color after I wear it a few times.
In any case, Beatnik was at the top of my list for my 12 in 2012 projects. I was going to start and finish the whole thing in February. It was going to be fabulous and cable-y and beautiful. I was going to practice my seaming techniques by finishing a laptop cover I started over the summer. It was going to be marvelous.
What actually happened was quite a bit less exciting. After frogging my Bella Mittens, I decided to cheer myself up with casting on the project early. I zipped through the ribbing only to get stuck at the cables. I don't know why I never learn that I greatly dislike looking at charts. It's not that I find them particularly hard to read or follow, and it's not tha t I prefer lengthy descriptions instead. It's that I like autopilot knitting. When I get a chart, it's a signal that "oh hey, you can't bring this everywhere and pick it up on a drop of a hat". It winds up being my "at home knitting". That basically means I barely ever work on it. Which means I wind up at the same stupid point for months on end.
I mean, the sweater is absolutely gorgeous. I love the cables and the subtle variations between the two balls of yarn. I love the texture and the brightness. I just don't love working on it. It doesn't help that I keep catching a mistake quite a few rows down and having to frog and inch or two. (Like, forgetting the decreases. And then miss-turning and entire row of cables a repeat down. And then losing my place- a few times).
Nevertheless, in the spirit of WIP Wednesday, I'm devoting my entire morning to this project. I fully intend to settle down, listen to some podcasts (the Knitmores are back!), maybe start an audiobook, and chug along. Lets just hope this time I won't have to frog all of my progress.
Who knows, maybe if I park myself in a coffee shop and listen to some poetry readings, it'll get done faster. I could even plays some Bob Dylan to prompt my knitting.
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