I am stubbornly ignoring the fact that we once again had temperatures in the 90s today. The calendar says it is Autumn. So there.

I am almost at the point on the last sleeve of my cardi where I can do the armhole decreases. One of the nice things about raglan sleeves is that once you get started, those decreases go very fast. Whee!

So by my next blog post there should be a completed cardi.

Winner!

Thank you for all the entries on the Cowl Girls book giveaway. The Random Number Generator chose Dominick to receive my review copy. Dominick, I’ve emailed you.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go crank the a/c.

The Autumnal Equinox is at 11:09 p.m., just a few hours from now. I cannot tell you how happy this makes me as I really loathe summer. Even the fact that it was around 90 degrees today and will be just as hot for the next couple of days doesn’t bother me too much because the end is in sight. Come on, Autumn!

And tomorrow is the harvest moon. That isn’t quite as thrilling to me, because the crazy drivers seem to crawl out of the woodwork around the full moon. So I am driving extra-cautiously this week.

So, anyway, I am making progress on the second sleeve of my cardi, albeit slowly. I don’t seem to have had much knitting time this week. I’m not sure where it’s all going. Perhaps there is a rift in the time/space continuum.

PlainJane asked in the comments:

Do you ever knit sweaters from the top down? I did that for my last raglan & it worked quite well.

I have knit top-down sweaters but I vastly prefer knitting from the bottom up. I am a big fan of seams, particularly in a sweater that has a very soft fabric, like this one. I am using a heavy fingering weight yarn at an approximately DK-weight gauge to make a sweater that is light and drapey, so it really benefits from the structure that the seams give it.

Well, I don’t have much to say today, and I need to get all set for the equinox. Maybe Lucy and I will howl at the moon.

Or not.

Just in case we do, Lucy is resting up.

(Just so you know, a couple of years ago, L-B phoned me at the moment of the Winter Solstice and we howled at the moon together over the phone. And I wonder why my neighbors look at me funny.)

I have achieved partial sleevage.

Here is the first sleeve, mattress-stitched together with the back and a side front of the cardigan.

As you can see, I knit a garter-stitch band as I knit the front. After completing the raglan decreases for the front, I put the stitches for the band on a holder. After the whole thing is put together, I’ll continue to knit each side of the band so that they are long enough to meet at the back of the neck. I’ll graft the live stitches together and sew the band down across the tops of the sleeves and the back. No fuss no muss.

The second sleeve is in process, so I am thinking this sweater will be finished by the end of the week.

Fortunately I have another project waiting in the wings. Here’s a blurry pic of the yarn:

Yep, it is more Tempted Lovely Grrl. I don’t seem able to get enough of this yarn. This pile o’ yarn I purchased from The Loopy Ewe a couple of weeks ago and I’m really looking forward to flinging a needle into it.

Lucy seems excited about it too.

I recently received a review copy of Cowl Girls: The Neck’s Best Thing to Knit by Cathy Carron. Apart from a cute title, what does it have?

Well, plenty of cowls to knit! There are 40 patterns to knits things to wrap around your neck, and go over your head. Most of these designs can be called cowls, I think, but there are a few hats as well.

There is a wide range of techniques used in these knits and the patterns range from quick and easy (thick yarn on fat needles) to more complex, like this colorwork cowl:

A few more of my favorites. This:

And this:

And this:

The book is being published by Sixth&Spring Books and is due out October 5.

Who’d like my review copy?

To be entered in the drawing to win my copy, leave a comment on this post by 4:00pm eastern time this Thursday, September 23, 2010. Don’t know how to leave a comment? Check out my comment tutorial.

A winner will be chosen at random from the comments left and announced in Thursday’s blog post.

Back to my own knitting . . .

Great progress has been made. I finished the first sleeve of my cardi but since I neglected to photograph it, you’ll have to take my word for it.

Knitting on the second sleeve will commence tonight.

And here is Lucy, in a photo from this past weekend, happily ensconced on her Daddy.

Photo take with Lucy’s Daddy’s Droid Incredible — great pic, eh?

(The sock yarn used for the socks pictured? I believe it was Regia Stretch but as I knit them a million years ago, I’m not sure.)

First off, we have winners in the Knitcircus giveaway.

Meredith, Marsha, Laura47, Sharon M, Dawn in NL, Verena B, April, Nancy B, Marla, and Milai have each won a copy of the pattern collection from the special gift issue I have emailed you all the link where you can download your patterns.

And Elise and Nanny Jean have each won a one-year subscription to Knitcircus. I have forwarded your email addresses to Jaala, Editor-in-Cheif of Knitcircus and she will arrange for your subscriptions.

Thank you to everyone who left a comment!

I’ve had a productive weekend here. I’ve got the body of my cardi completed as you can see from this photo.

Cat included for scale.

I’m now working on the first sleeve.

When I started knitting this, I wasn’t planning on releasing the pattern because I was feeling too lazy to do the math to re-size it. But several of you have expressed interest in a pattern, so I’ve sucked it up and done the math. The pattern will be made available when I am done, in 5 sizes ranging from 36″ to 52″ circumference.

Soon.

Lucy sez:

“I love Mr. Kitty!”