tell me why......

Sailing heart-ships thru broken harbors

Out on the waves in the night

Still the searcher must ride the dark horse

Racing alone in his fright.

Tell me why, tell me why

Is it hard to make arrangements with yourself,

When your old enough to repay but young enough to sell?

Tell me lies later, come and see me

I'll be around for a while.

I am lonely but you can free me

All in the way that you smile

Tell me why, tell me why

Is it hard to make arrangements with yourself,

When your old enough to repay but young enough to sell?

Tell me why, tell me why

Tell me why, tell me why

and, while you're at it, neil, tell my why it is that i can't seem to stay on task! argh!!!

i start out with such good intentions or ideas and i just can't seem to focus to see those ideas through to completion! argh!!! all i can say is that i'm really lucky that they weren't diagnosing 'adhd' when i was young or i would have been in a world of hurt!!

ya know, october is a 'big' month in the world of knitting, being 'socktober' and all! and have i finished just one pair of socks so far this month - well, not exactly but i do have one of a pair done and at this point that may have to count! that is a sad state of affairs! had you asked what my intentions were on october one, multiple pairs would have been at the top of my list. and, putting a dent in my malabrigo stash during 'stocktober' smackdown would have been right up near the top of that same list!

but, alas, a mere week left of the month and where am i? not very far!

and why would that be? distractions, plain and simple!

if a teacher were filling out my report card, i'm sure that the comments would include a line like, 'pati needs to spend more time in her seat, completing her assignments, instead of being such a gadfly'. i would have to say i'm more like a butterfly - i flit from here to there and back again!

and what have i been flitting to and fro with? shawl patterns - all of a sudden they have become a compulsion - i am working on my third one this month alone! tsk! tsk! tsk! and, i see more in my future!! i am doomed!!

oh, yeah, i did spend a wee bit of time knitting these:

for these - the little punkin heads!

and the others for another little set of punkin heads!!

now, what was i supposed to be focusing on?.....

surrrrrprise!

stick a big ass fork in it - it's done!the adult surprise jacket! elizabeth zimmermann is an absolute genius!! this sucker was knit in one piece - unbelievable - a little bit freaky while it was on the needles but the results were well worth it! the only seam was the one up the top of the arms!
and i am very happy and very pleased! in many, many ways!!
and the weather has finally cooperated and cooled so that i can actually wear it! yippee!!
and here is the really freaky news about this sweater - i actually followed all of the directions - to the letter - and that, in itself, is a miracle!!

i knit the prerequisite - the baby surprise jacket. what a terrific idea and great advice. it helped instill the concept of layout and knitting methods and procedures. it was somewhat deceptive however - the bsj was knit in a flash and was nice and tiny. that was not the case with the adult version - the garter stitch just seemed to go on and on and on and on as the jacket got heavier and heavier and heavier!!

the pattern also suggested that one include all the colors in one's closet so that the jacket would be versatile and could be worn with everything. i think they were referring to the basics, like brown, black or navy not the whole 9 yards!! since my plan was to do a little stash busting, i decided to really include all the colors in my closet which didn't seem to be much of a problem since i have oodles and oodles of leftover bits of odd ball yarn! why not use them all? great idea, i thought, until i had to work in all of the ends! not such a good idea!

i successfully used 4 skeins of gray paton's wool and made a dent in my tidbit bin! wow, i'm actually stash busting! gosh, i hope i don't break my arm patting myself on the back as i need to be stash bustin' on a much bigger scale!

oh, yeah, did i mention that there was math involved? i actually sat down and did a gauge swatch (another miracle) and did the math - me, doing math! i think that that is why i usually knit from patterns that have all of that business taken care of so i don't have to dig through the cobwebs and engage that part of my brain!! in this case, i'm glad i did.

all in all, i think that this sweater is 'the bomb'!! it's stylish, it fits and is nice and toasty warm! perfect for all those fall days ahead! and....thoughts of knitting this again keep wafting through my mind......someday.....maybe.....