Gotta love big wool and big needles!

Yes indeed! There's nothing quite like big wool and big needles to help you get a new sweater in a hurry. May I present the Lace Leaf Pullover from Loop d Loop.

It was started on Friday Nov. 30th and finished yesterday - December 9th. I say I don't think you can get faster than that, but I know that would be a lie. If you want an even faster sweater, check out the Very Cropped Hoodie from Magknits. (It took me a day!) My sweater is toasty warm and I love the colour. I love the fit, but... You knew a "but" was coming didn't you. Well. Here's the problem. It bunches. The upper chest creeps upwards towards the neckline creating a weird kind of bulky, bulgy roll that completely hides the leaf motif and looks just downright weird in the process. I am not about to rip out the whole thing just to fix it. First of all because I wouldn't know how to fix it and secondly because the top half and bottom half are freaking well grafted together. It took me bloomin' forever to get it into one piece. I cannot, nay I refuse, to take it all apart. I think I can live with the sweater roll and all. Afterall, it's really warm and that wins over anything here in Winnipeg in the winter! (well in my books anyways!)

Sorry again 'bout the quality of the picture - it's the best G and I could come up with. Apparently I am, as always, woefully unphotogenic and in most of the shots she took I either look stoned or downright mean. This truly was the best one. I realize that it doesn't show the leaf motif, nor the wonderful green button detail on the neckline, but if you squint and peer very closely at your screen you'll see the roll at the neckline.

I've been knitting like a mad woman!

Something to do with stress. Details of said stress I will not go into, but it's amazing what one can accomplish when faced with a crisis, less than four hours of sleep in a period of over 48 hours, and a obsessive need to focus on something besides crisis at hand lest said mad woman go even further into the depths of madness.

Here are the fruits of my obsessive compulsiveness:

First up is (BF)G's sweater. Pardon the creepy midsection only shot, but it was the best light so there you have it! It is Jesse's Flames (sans Flames 'cause I'm not sure what flames on sleeves say about a 45 year old man...) from Stitch n Bitch Nation It was knit in Bernat's Cashmere Naturals assuming that because it's a sweater for work, I wanted inexpensive, but soft, warm and washable. Well I acheived all but the washable. Ooops! The darned thing is handwash only. D'uh. If it's got any amount of cashmere the reasonable brain would figure that it couldn't be thrown willy nilly in the washer. Ooops. Mine is not a reasonable brain. Clearly. (I have made (BF)G promise not to attempt to wash it on his own.)

Up next is a little sweater destined as a wee Christmas giftie for a certain teenaged girl. It is the Very Cropped Hoody from Magknits. Knit on 15 mm needles, top down construction using Lion Brand's Wool Ease thick and quick in black and Red Heart's multi supersaver in Haze it was a super speedy knit. One day. I kid you not! I started it yesterday morning, knit for a couple of hours, put it down for the afternoon and started up again early in the evening and voila! Done. Amazing! If you need a quick knit for your favourite teen girl - this is the pattern you want!
Last but not least - I started my Lace Leaf Pullover from Loop d Loop on one of my sleepless nights/days last week. I think it might have been Friday. I don't remember. It's a bit of a fog. Anyways, the results of one day's mad woman knitting is that the front is almost done and ready to be grafted together. Pattern wise it's done. My body wise it needs more length thank you very much. No one wants the risk of this old belly hanging out from under a too short sweater. Eeek! I will get back to work on it tomorrow.
Now, here's a picture I just have to show you. I wish I could claim credit for it, but I can't. Here is the wonderful, beautiful gift that my swap partner in the Around the World Christmas swap sent me all the way from Finland. It arrived today along with an entire boxfull of goodies (that picture really didn't turn out). Didn't she do an amazing job?!?!?!