looking forward

The feel of fall is in the air right now, and I am so looking forward to the coming of the real deal. I love fall, with its cool, sweater-friendly temperatures, and the not-so-glaring sunshine, and the leaves changing, and everything else. It is without a doubt my favorite time of year, and even if I’m not healthy enough for my usual fall activities (like cross-country running), I’m still going to do my best to make the most of it.

I’ve also got some wonderful stuff to look forward to, knitting-wise. On Friday, while I worked from home, I was distracted for awhile, playing with my beautiful Beaverslide color cards:

How could one not be distracted by such a wonderful pile of colorful, soft tweedy goodness? Anyway, ever since seeing a couple of bloggers’ wonderful EZ Adult Tomten jackets, I’m dying to knit one for myself. All that garter stitch! While looking at my colorcards, I settled on “Prairie Sandreed” (a light sagey green) as the main color, with “Arrowleaf Balsamroot” (a pale blue) as the contrast color, for my hypothetical Adult Tomten, to be knit “someday”.

But lo and behold, when I went to the Beaverslide website, which two colors were amongst the “sale” colors? My Adult Tomten colors, that’s what. So, I have a jacket’s worth of yummy Beaverslide yarn (my first, besides the colorcards) coming to me. Is it wrong that I want to make this sweater my entry into NaNoSweMo?

Well, perhaps it is, because I’ve promised my husband that his sweater, the Cambridge Jacket from the Summer 2006 Interweave, is the next thing in my queue. In fact, if you’re on Ravelry, look at my queue…it really is the first thing on it! I’m going to be knitting his sweater in a nice, deep teal blue shade of Cascade 220, and as soon as I finish up my Sienna Cardigan, it will be on the needles. I’m hoping to cast-on by his birthday (a month and two days from today), and finish it up before our third wedding anniversary this spring (I’m giving myself lots of time, since I’ve not knit a man-sized sweater before!). But I guess nothing says I can’t take a little break in November to focus on my Tomten, right?

I’m looking forward to another annual knitalong, as well. Lolly just announced the 3rd annual Socktoberfest, and I’m quite excited! Another thing that distracted me from my work on Friday was balling up a few skeins of sock yarn that have been hiding in a desk drawer for awhile (to keep my cat from eating them. He has problems). Namely, two colors of ShibuiKnits sock yarn (“Pebble”, and “Grace”), and an awesomely bright and me-colored skein of Vesper sock yarn (in “Sweetwater”):

I can’t wait to turn these into socks! With variegated yarns, I tend to default to a basic stockinette sock, because I really can’t stand how messy most patterns look in variegated yarns. I’ll probably put a picot hem on at least a few of these, but other than that, they’ll be simple, and all about the colors. I’ll save the patterned socks for my solid colored yarns.

Along those lines, the new knitty is out, and one sweater in particular has caught my eye: Roam. A nice, simple looking hoodie, mostly in seed-stitch (which I love). I’m thinking of taking the beautiful green Araucania Nature Wool that I’d been planning to use for a cabled hoodie, and using it to make a slightly-heavier Roam instead. I’m thinking that the yarn is a bit more variegated than it is “semi-solid”, and that it’s likely to look a lot better in a pattern like Roam than in one with lots of cables (this is probably personal preference, but I generally really dislike cables in variegated yarns). Of course, this will have to wait until I clear my needles of other things, but I think it’s a good plan.

Yet another sweater that has caught my eye is the adorable Drops Cardigan that everyone’s been talking about. Seeing Pam’s finished version makes me want to rip out Tailored Scallops and use the doubled Rowanspun DK to knit a cardigan like that, instead. I’m not sure if I’ll do it…but I think the Drops cardigan might be more my style than the lacy cardigan, as pretty as it is. I’ll have to think about it some more.

And finally, some exciting (for me) news, which I first came across over at More Than One Way To Knit A Hat. Knitpicks is making wooden needles! And look how pointy they are! I’m thrilled about this, because I’ve been hunting for a set of nice, pointy wooden circular needles that don’t cost a bajillion dollars each. I’m currently trying to knit my future sister-in-law’s shawl on my Denise needles, and knitting lace with those stubby size 5 needles is pretty miserable. Not to mention how slippery the plastic is with that fine silk-merino blend. I’ve been feeling so left out, hearing everyone go on about how wonderful the metal Knitpicks needles were, but being seriously allergic to nickel, I didn’t dare try out those nickel-plated needles. But now I don’t have to!

Ok, now back to work with me! I’ve got a presentation to make in class tomorrow!