It’s September. It’s Autumn. No Shirking Mohair.

Over the past few days, I’ve tried to do some prioritizing (I’m pretending that I can stick to this). Namely, what I need and want to have done by Christmas. I am not the fastest knitter in the West, so now is the time to get that sort of thing clear. First and foremost, I want to be able to wear the La Gran cardigan I worked on last spring and then put away during the heat of summer. The pattern is from VK (Fall 2002) and I have wanted to knit it since I first saw it in 2002. I just couldn’t convince myself that I was a good enough knitter to buy the yarn. To get out of that bind, I asked for the yarn for a Christmas gift last year, and my mother-in-law, Nancy, was generous enough to get it for me. I love, love, love the yarn. The color is lilac. I got the back and about half the left front done last spring, and now, 99 degree high tomorrow or not, I must continue. I worked more on the left front this weekend:

On my computer screen, this photo captures the lilac color perfectly (Thanks, M, for the help with camera light settings!), and yes, our sofa is ruby red.

Now what is that bit of naughtiness lying on my sweater front?

It looks like a lace scarf to me in Lorna’s Laces shepherd sock in Black Purl. This is not on my list of things to have done by Christmas. I was making a pair of socks, and I didn’t like how the color was pooling, so, as I was browsing through Barbara Walker volume 1 (a wonderful, dangerous book!), I thought to myself, maybe Black Purl would look better in the trellis vine lace pattern. I had to see. And I like it. The scarf calls to me on the wrong side rows of my sweater. You can see the pitiful extent of my willpower. I keep going back to the scarf. It even matches the sweater. But I really want the sweater, too. Do I really need to sleep?

And here is a teaser for Nancy, one of the three people I know of who reads this blog.

It’s a start, and it seems to be going well. They are birthday socks for Nancy, whose birthday was July 31st. I know this makes me sound extremely tardy in the gift-giving venture, but I asked her on July 29th if she would like a pair of handknit socks, and then we had to browse at Simply Sock Yarn Company for the perfect color. This is CTH supersock in Peacock. SSYC offers free shipping on orders over $50, so of course, I had to order more sock yarn for myself to get the free shipping. It would have been financially irresponsible to pay for shipping on one skein when I could order a few more and not pay shipping. Right? But short of a broken hand, these socks will be ready before wool sock wearing season here in the Central Valley of CA.