97,000 stitches

I can't believe I went to San Francisco without a camera. What a beautiful city! It was only my second time there. The first time, HWWLLB and I were on a crazy west-coast road trip during which we visited Susanna and Mike, back in the days when they lived in that beautiful city. This time, I was there for a conference - one helluva conference - and sadly there was no free time at all. The only free moments I had were spent eating - once at a pretentious fish place and once at a cheap and delicious Indian restaurant, both times bleary-eyed and late at night, especially by my eastern time zone standards. There was no museum-visiting, vibrating, or even trinket-shopping. There was much listening to presentations, much learning, much networking, and much exchanging of business cards.

There was also much knitting. Very much knitting.

The project that I worked on during this trip: Ann Budd's Pullover Flair from Interweave Knits Spring 2006. Jenn is working on this one, too, so we decided to start a mini knit-a-long for motivational purposes. (You can join!)

I know, we are behind the times. Spring 2006! That was a whole year ago! Luckily, I have never been one to stay on top of things (see how I spin that into an asset?), so the non-timeliness isn't bothering me. I am just excited to use this lovely stash yarn that has waited too long in the yarn cabinet to be taken out and loved. Actually, I did try knitting a cardigan last spring with it, but the Knitting Olympics and some sizing difficulties put the kibosh on it. This time, I counted on the nearly-unbearable tedium of cross-country airline travel to seal this project's fate as a garment, and early indicators point to garment completion in the not-too-distant future.

Yarn: Queensland Collection Kathmandu Aran (a.k.a. Jo Sharp Silk Road Aran). It's mostly merino, with a little silk and cashmere thrown in for fun. I have been daydreaming about knitting something with it for far too long!

Pattern: A highly-modified version of Pullover Flair. I'm knitting it the Icelandic way, bottom-up, all-in-one. It's such a simple pattern, with such elegantly easy shaping, it really lends itself to reworking however you like (I realize as I write this that I may be back soon howling with regret for my lack of caution, but hey - we'll cross that bridge when we come to it).

Is anyone else out there knitting this sweater? Maybe it's just too straightforward and - dare I say it - perhaps a bit boring? But I love simplicity, and I think this is something I'll actually wear quite a lot. If you're knitting it (or thinking of knitting it), pop on over to the knit-a-long and post some photos!

So, the progress: after three days of airports and conference presentations, I calculate that I've put in about 97,000 stitches on this sweater.



That makes most of one torso (from the bottom edge up to the armpits), and the start of a sleeve. Now you know why I didn't have time to go take a cable car.

P.S. Egregious cat photo: Simon helping with the laundry.