I Just Can't Get Enough

I think it says a lot about a pattern when I can't wait to get home and work on it. That has been the case all week with my State Fair Cardigan. In the past, I've been pretty slow with anything cabled, and while I wouldn't say that this sweater is knitting up really fast, it's definitely moving along at a good clip. Last night I finished up the decreases of the waist shaping and did the first set of increases. I'm nearly to the end of my second repeat of the cable pattern and quickly approaching the end of my first skein of yarn.

Tomorrow I have the day off from work (it's our "spring break"). I have to take Rainbow to the dentist in the morning, but then I'm planning on taking the sweater to my LYS and spending the day knitting there. I can't wait.

After finishing the hat over the weekend, I needed a new lunchtime project, so I started a new pair of socks. I know I'm supposed to be knitting from stash, but I had a weak moment and bought a skein of yarn from Lisa of Fibernymph Dye Works a couple of weeks ago when she had her last shop update. I had missed out on a colorway I really liked in an earlier update, so I thought I'd try to snag one this time around. Luckily, it seems most people were going for a limited-edition colorway, so I was able to get a skein.

This colorway is called Sad Panda, and this skein is on Lisa's Bedazzled base (75% superwash merino, 20% nylon, 5% stellina). I really liked this one because the blue stripe is actually a variegated blue -- something a bit different from the typical self-striping yarns. I'm not doing anything fancy with these, just a ribbed cuff and plain stockinette with a heel flap and gusset. I'm using size 0/2.0 mm needles again for a dense (and therefore durable) fabric, so I anticipate that these will take a bit of time to finish, especially considering that I'm only working on them for about 45 minutes a day at most. And that's fine with me; I'm not in a hurry. It's nice to pull them out in the middle of the day and have some simple, meditative knitting to do when the day's been crazy.