I did indeed finish CeCe on Saturday night. This required a marathon knit session on Saturday, but I was on a mission.

Here is CeCe in its unblocked state.

And the back.

A close-up of where I sewed the neckband onto the back of the neck:

I just did an overcast stitch on the wrong side to attach it.

I decided to wet-block CeCe. So here it is, all laid out nice and flat.

Wonder how long it will take to dry?

I used around 4.5 skeins of Rowan Calmer on a size 7 needles and made the 42″ size. It’s about 23″ long from back of the neck to the hem.

So, on to the next project.

And Lucy is still showing off her profile:

CeCe is no longer in pieces. She has pulled herself together and is starting to resemble a cardigan.

I’ve incorporated the sleeves into the body of the sweater. Now what remains is to continue to knit in the pattern, working raglan decreases on each side of each sleeve, and at the same time work the vee-neck decreases at the front edges.

So I’m working some really long rows and trying to remember what I’m supposed to be decreasing and where I’m supposed to be doing it.

My CeCe will have one button at the beginning of the vee-neck and I’ve already got the button:

I got it at Charlotte Yarn last weekend and I think it is pretty darn perfect.

So, what do you think? Will I complete CeCe before my next blog entry on Sunday or won’t I?

Lucy Sez:

“I don’t know, but don’t I have a pretty profile?”

When I was in North Carolina last weekend, I came across a yarn and pattern line that was new to me: Sublime.

Sublime is,  according to their page on the Knitting Fever website linked above, “a new luxury fiber line created by Sirdar.”

The LYS I was visiting, Charlotte Yarn, had several of their pattern books for sale, as well as a number of the yarns. This one caught my eye first:

That’s the Soya Cotton book #632, and I love the sweater on the cover. There are some other cute designs in the book as well — you can see them here.

Here’s the other book I bought:

That’s the Bamboo & Pearls Book #633 and you can see the designs inside here.

Both books have some really cute designs in them. I do have a couple of beefs with the books. One, there are no charts — written out instructions only. Two, the book is printed in what looks like 6-point type in grey print on white. I can barely see it. Jeez people, have a heart.

Fortunately the patterns aren’t too complex, so I won’t need to stare at tiny grey type too much to knit them.

I did buy yarn for the cover sweater on on the Soya Cotton book — but not the Sublime Soya Cotton.

I bought some Knit One Crochet Two TyDye yarn — this:

It’s color #518 — “Meadow.” It’s a variegated yarn, but it looks pretty subtle. Since the pattern I’ll be knitting is a fairly plain all-over lace pattern, I don’t think the yarn colorway will overpower it. We’ll see.

I’ll be starting this, I think, after I complete CeCe.

CeCe is at the point where I’ll join the sleeves to the body and start knitting up, doing the raglan and front decreases. Wheeeeeee!

Lucy Sez:

“Momma gets excited over the weirdest things.”

I fully intended to blog yesterday, but time got away from me, as it has been doing more and more these days.

I had a lovely trip to Charlotte, NC this past weekend, and taught classes to some really great knitters, and had a chance to hang out with some good friends. All in all, a very successful trip. But of course, the return to reality took a bit of time and I’m now dealing with the after-effects of being out of the office for a couple of days. Yikes!

I took CeCe with me as my travel knitting, so managed to make some progress. I got the body done up to the point where you cast off stitches for the armholes.

And I knit one sleeve up to the point of joining it to the body, and am working along on the second sleeve. Because they are short sleeves, this is pretty quick work.

You just get a photo of the second sleeve in progress because I am tired and lazy. Mostly lazy.

The next step will be to put the whole thing together, and then continue to knit back and forth on the body and sleeves at the same time, doing raglan decreases and vee-neck decreases as I go.

I also have a very time-consuming stealth project I need to devote a lot of attention to, so progress on CeCe will continue slowly, I think.

A couple of you ask what I mean by “stealth” projects — these are things I am working on that for one reason or another I am not posting about publicly.  That’s all. It’s nothing dramatic — I’m not knitting Kevlar vests for the FBI or anything.

Norwegian Rose KAL

Leslie of The Knitgirllls tells me that they (the Knitgirllls, Leslie and Laura) are starting a knit-along for my Norwegian Rose Socks, which is one of the colorwork patterns in my new book, Toe-Up Socks for Every Body.

They mentioned the knit-along in their latest podcast (check the link above), and there is a thread for it in their Ravelry group.

Lucy Sez

“I think the Norwegian Rose Socks should be knit in chocolate and cream so that they match my beautiful fur.”

This is just a quick post because I’m going out of town in the morning and I have of course left everything packing-related to the last minute.

I’ll pack CeCe last, so I can work on it tonight.

So instead of blogging, I’m getting my stuff together.

I’ll be back on the blog on Monday. See you then!

Lucy sez:

“Party at my place this weekend –  BYOC!”