Knitting entropy

The whack weather in Boston means I keep changing projects. I was about a third of the way through Rosebud during our freezing rainy spring when I had to make a brief detour into the Haiku sweaters (baby Penelope was born two days after sweaters were completed, yay!). When it was time to restart Rosebud, the weather was warming up and it was not appealing to work on a long-sleeved garment. Then came the Wild and Woolly sale, at which I bought some Sunsette to make Bob. Bob was nearly half done (no photos yet) when it hit 94 degrees with about 90 percent humidity. Whoa. Don't think I'd be wearing a rayon-based Bob soon in this heat. I had to stop by W&W again to pick up some needles for Grumperina, and while there a sale bag of Crystal Palace Choo-Choo in dusty blue jumped right into my arms. It did! Really! Hey, were *you* there to claim otherwise? And that is how I came to start the Zen pullover, which really now is a Choo-Choo (note to yarn makers - kindly cut out the cutesy and "hip" yarn names like Choo-Choo and Bling-Bling. I am not 6 years old and am not some hoodie-clad trim [to quote Que Sera Sera] who wants to pimp her ride and hang with J.Lo.) pullover:



Here's what the Choo-Choo looks like close up:



It's kind of cool, and this is coming from someone with a general disdain for foofy ribbon yarn. I like how the knitted fabric looks kind of like Liberty print.

Oh, and the Knitting Room in Arlington is for sale. If they don't find a buyer they will close next year. Jackie and Laura said the shop is doing well, but they have become less enthralled with working retail as opposed to knitting as a hobby. I mentioned this offhandedly to my husband, who looked at me in a horrified way and said 'Don't even think about it." I wasn't! I grew up in retail and I know it's not for me.

There once was a sweater from Nantucket

Hey, that's not a Haiku. But this is:



and so's this:



These are the preblocked Haiku for my husband's softball teammate's daughters (the second daughter is expected to make her appearance any day now). Though the photo doesn't show it, the yellow one is newborn-sized and the green is for two-year-old Amelia. I hope they will take a photo of the girls wearing the sweaters. Haiku is a very easy pattern.
Details: Cotton Ease in Banana Cream and Pistachio; pattern Haiku from Knitty; buttons from Wild and Woolly, Lexington.

Making good progress on Rosebud, but the stockinette in the round on size 5 needles was getting dull, so I have begun a Bob from Knitty. Instead of the cotton I am trying out Plymouth Sunsette - it's rayon, but not as annoying as Lion Microspun. And working ribbing has been a nice change (I am easily amused, I guess). Grumperina thinks I should alter the raglan seams to make them narrower. I hope I can figure out how to do that.

The Sunsette was acquired at the Wild and Woolly sale along with a bag of Tahki New Tweed, so I can make Subway Knitter's Spring Breeze top. Yay! I really like that one. Turns out she also got her New Tweed at the last W&W sale.

Oh, and I decided to frog the shapely tank. The ribbon was just too heavy when knit tightly and the short row bust looked odd, so I need to find another pattern that takes better advantage of the drapey ribbon. I'm thinking maybe a mesh tank that I would wear over a camisole or something. Or maybe just a shawl. Though I don't really wear shawls. Hmm. What would you do with 800 yards of Filati Must ribbon in a raspberry color? It's narrower and heavier than Zen and Glace, so those patterns don't really work for this ribbon.