Almost Lucy

I slogged through the sleeves about a week or so ago, got the whole kit and kaboodle joined together and am getting so close to finishing this sweater that just the very whiff of finishing has been motivation enough to really keep the needles moving. I've been dragging it everywhere--to the carpool, little guy's therapy, in front of All My Kids--anytime I can get a row or so done.

Of course the joy of knitting a bottom up sweater is that it is all decreases from here on out, baby. Nothing but decreases.

And the other joy? Not much finishing. Join the underarm stitches, weave in the ends, and then block it. As for buttons, I haven't any yet. I'm off to NYC in a couple of weeks and since I'm staying in the garment district, I thought I might shop for buttons there. Any recommendations???

I've been waffling about what to do next, trying to find that perfect Fall project when I saw Luanna here in the Berroco newsletter. It was love at first sight. I'd found my Fall sweater to get my needles happily clicking again. But I hit a snag when I couldn't find a color in Softwist that made me want to click the order button. Nor did I want to add yet another pile of yarn to my bulging stash. I've got yarn for a Bristow, a Knitty Thermal, and countless other sweaters--shoehorning in another 19 skeins? I had to draw a line.

Then this morning, as I was once again avoiding work and drooling over this pattern, I remembered a yarn I had in my stash that I bought a year or so ago on eBay. It is this lovely heathered Cascade 220.
Oh, yeah, I had my Luanna! But then I did a little math (gads I hate math) and realized I was two skeins short. Curses! But a quick check on the web and a few frantic emails later, I had two skeins from Chris at Alpaca Direct.

So now I have even more motivation to get Lucy done so I can get swatching Luanna. Hey, what is this I have about knitting "L" sweaters. Next time I'm thinking of making a little hop in the alphabet and going to N, as in Neiman.