In between naps...

I'm so ready for January to be done, who's with me? My back is much improved, not enough to get back into yoga yet, but hopefully by the end of the week. So instead of being laid up because of my back, this past week and a half, it's been the plague that's had me on my ass. Not literal plague of course, it's just a cold. But it has been a helluva bad cold.  My face hurt, my sinuses, my throat, the lymph nodes in my neck,  even my left ear, all hurt. I was waking up with my eyes crusted over with gunk. I was *napping for 2-3 hours a day, sometimes twice, and still exhausted.

*I don't nap. I am not a napper. I don't even understand wtf a power nap is. I am the worst napper ever. If I do say "I'm going to lie down for a nap" my family gets scared looks on their faces because they know when I wake up from said nap (if I manage to even fall asleep) I will be the grumpiest bear EVER. I'm downright mean after a nap. My naps are a mess. I lie down, and within 20 minutes of laying there, trying to sleep, I will have to pee. Even if I pee'd before. (I drink a lot of tea) Fine, I go pee, and settle back down. Another 20 minutes and whoo! starting to feel drowsy, might fall asleep! Inevitably, something happens, a cat scratches at the door, or a kid yells about something or the phone rings. K, fine. That's dealt with. I finally fall asleep, only to have my alarm go off 15-20 minutes later. I have to set an alarm otherwise, I will sleep 6hrs and then I will be up all night and my schedule will be completely out of whack. It's all bad. 

While in my fugue/sick state I started obsessing about knitting Tincanknits Harvest cardy in Malabrigo Worsted.   Not only did this fantasy sweater have to be knit in malworsted, I also wanted it to be knit with the colourway Arco Iris or Candombe.  (which are gorgeous, but vry much out of my comfort zone)
Thankfully, I am over it. Because how crazy would that be? A sweater knit with malworsted would be the squooshiest, most comfortable sweater ever...but the pilling! Oh, it would pill terribly, and I'd probably, accidentally felt it as well.
I will eventually knit the Harvest cardy, but it will NOT be in Malworsted, and it will not be a variegated colourway. 

When I wasn't obsessing about ridiculous yarn choices for cardies, I was mentally planning the stoker pullover, and I started thinking about the construction. It's knit in pieces and I'm not confident in my ability to convert it to a top down pattern. I could probably manage to convert it to a partial bottom up in the round, and then knitting from the armholes as flat pieces, but that could get vry complicated as well. I don't want to use my gorgeous Julie Asselin Sevilla on this sweater that I can't try on as I knit, so I'm thinking of using stashed knitpicks wool (because if I hate the sweater and never wear it, it won't have cost a lot). The problem with this plan is that I don't have a sweaters quantity of kp swish. I have lots of leftover Rainforest heather, and lots of  Dove heather, but not a full sweaters worth of either. So, my solution to this problem, is to knit the bottom half of the sweater with the darker colour, switching to the dove just under my bust.  But again, because there's no trying on the sweater as I go, how can I make sure the change in colour is under my bust?  There's got to be a solution and I'm just too dopey to figure it out.  I'm also kind of iffy on the boxy shape of the sweater, I like my curves, and want them a little highlighted, not hidden. I will have to study the pattern some more.
EDIT: Tuesday morning edit to say that I realize I am overthinking this...I could actually just make a regular sweater, like the Andi Satterlund sweater, and turn the neckline INTO A COWL. 

Anywhooo, thanks to plague, there was very little knitting until Sunday. Yes, I dragged my sorry self out of the house to possibly infect others because I wanted to knit so very badly, and it just wasn't happening at home. Being at home made me want to be in bed, under the duvet. Sleeping. Not knitting. Luckily mah knitta was not afraid of my pesky germs and agreed to meet up with me for a little fibre crafting...she even brought me some homemade cheesecake nomnomnom. She's the greatest!

So we knit, and I finished my second bulky sock knit with the bulky O wool.

Yay!

And I came pretty close to finishing my Andi Satterlund sweater too! So, sunday night, after the 6yr old went to bed, I decided to just hunker down and finish it. I didn't, because I ended up being too tired and having to go to bed, but it was very very close, and this morning after I napped (yeah I did) I finished  the last couple of rows on the sleeve, bound off and then picked up the stitches for the neckline. Instead of the 5 rows of ribbing for the neckline, I only knit 3 before binding off. 

I'm pretty pleased with how the sweater turned out.

I think.

My picking up of stitches could be better. Maybe I should watch a tutorial, or read some instructions on picking up stitches? So many things in knitting that I've just done without really knowing what I'm doing, which is ridiculous given all the resources that are available. 

Also, I realized when trying on the sweater, that I did a regular ribbed bind off for the right sleeve, and a stretchy bind off for the left sleeve. *sigh* 

I'm not going to re-do it. I have no effs to give. 

As far as I'm concerned, this sweater is done and ready to be worn.

I'll just tuck the ends in until I get around to weaving them in. 

Here's a bonus shot of my bulky socks, with photobombing kitty!