Team Sweater - Day Two

(Okay, so I'm totally slacking on updates here - was all week. Was not my fault, though. On Wednesday the monitor went ka-fizzle, leaving me with no real way to do proper updates. However, the kind folks at Dell stepped up to the plate and managed to get us a replacement monitor in, I shit you not, something like 18 hours, from the time Caz called to the time the FedEx guy knocked on our door. Anyway, will get caught up later, I promise. Really!

So, the Olympics. I never did get a chance to officially post up what I'm doing, so here it is:

I'm making my first-ever sweater, toddler-sized in deference to my usual time constraints. The pattern is "Prepster" from The Yarn Girls' Guide to Kid Knits in this funky-cool light green Candy Cane yarn I got at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival from Sandy's Palette.



So far, so good:



(The red and gold bits would be Dove Dark Chocolate hearts - Go Team Chocolate!)



However, I'm realizing that the true challenge of this project is not going to be the whole notion of knitting up the pieces of a sweater and turning them into a wearable garment. The true challenge is going to be resisting the urge to gnaw my throwing hand off out of sheer boredom over all the freakin' stockinette. Good lord! Should one of these challenges come up again one of these days, I gotta remember to pick a project with a bit more interest!

It's quite seriously all I can do not to go start up that other Jaywalker I've got yarn for.

Also? I'm worried about yardage. According to the pattern, I would need 540 yards of yarn for the size I'm knitting (still hitting gauge pretty much spot on, so that's something at least). However, that number is, so far as I can tell, for both the sweater /and/ the matching hat. I've temporarily misplaced the "ball" band (quotes because it was a whoppin' great hank, not a ball), but I know it was over 8 oz of wool, with somewhere between 520 and 560 yards. I bought two skeins - one green and one blue, but I'm not sure which skein was the larger off hand.

Anyway, point is, I'm worried about the yardage. Caz wound it all off for me (now that's what I call an Olympic-level support team!) into four center-pull balls, and I ran out of the first ball tonight. I don't have a scale here at home, so I have no idea what sort of weight I'm dealing with as far as amount knitted vs. amount remaining, but this is starting to make me a little batty. I have, however, decided that if by the time I finish the back and the front I'm still really worried about it, I will do a provisional cast-on for the sleeves and save knitting the ribbed cuffs until the end. If all else fails, I'll do the collar ribbing and the cuff ribbing in a contrasting color. And if I really wind up screwed, once I finish cussing and throwing things, I'll do that freaky ass nifty trick where you can separate a piece of knitting and save all those live stitches. And I'll do the hem ribbing in said contrast color as well, then.

Gnnnggg. It's going all right, but I think I might have to give myself a day off once I finish the back, so I can work on something cool and interesting for a change. I can't imagine doing a plain ol' stockinette sweater for an adult, even a cheeky wee adult quite unlike myself or Caz. I think I'd go stark freakin' mad.