Thursday, December 18, 2014

Grandpa KAL and more

The Winter brought with it, the seasonal illnesses into our household, namely cold, flu and associated respiratory problems. The youngest two members of the family were affected and last week consisted of hospital visits and caring for the little ones. Thankfully, they seem to be on a mend and I am again able to take stock of the world beyond antibiotics and bronchodilators.

On the knitting front, the aran sweater that was giving me trouble, continued to live up to its reputation as I ran short yarn. When all my efforts to procure more of the same yarn failed, I decided to take a risk and get some instead in the exact shade of color but different weight. I try to knit the sleeves with the lighter yarn, held double and hope for the best. Soon.
 
Meanwhile, I embarked on a KAL (knit-along) with my long-time friend Shells. We did many a KALs in the past, but none to recently. This time, we are knitting Grandpa cardigan. Although, the start has not been perfect, Shells finding the selected yarn a bit thin for the pattern (she bogs about it here and here) and I getting caught up in kids' illnesses, still I have high hopes for this KAL. Hopefully, it will provide us much motivation and fun.

At this point, I have managed to knit this top-down sweater to a point beyond the armholes. Ahead are long pattern rows with relatively little shaping, in other words, a slog. And that is just where I wish to be, knit-wise, at the moment.