I Think My Brain is on Fire...

...in a sweater planning frenzy!

I can't stop thinking about the Zimmerman Four project - I'm off in all directions. I keep playing with the yarn for the Fair Isle Cardigan - grouping by colour, the spectrum, darks and lights, neutrals and colours. Then I consider the shapes and styles of the Zimmerman seamless hybrids - which I might prefer as a cardigan, which might I make for My Beloved rather than myself? Do I have any upcoming baby knitting that might be a way to work one of the designs?  I need to capture these ideas and the million others I'm percolating. I'm pondering a file folder or binder or notebook or something to drop ideas into so I can let them go rather than playing them in a continuous loop in my head.

I'm enjoying getting both the body and sleeve underway for the Tangled Yoke. I was on the road so much last week the body got very little play but the sleeve is progressing well. Working on four circs for the sleeves rather than the three I use for socks feels rather halting. Nonetheless I am loving how its looking and I'm still quite engaged with the rosy pink colour.

So far I've managed to hold off on swatching for the Fair Isle - I want to get Tangled Yoke past the garter ribbed section first.

 I've also decided I'm going to aim to get the DKC Diamond Scarf done by this month's DKC meeting because I think it'd be fun to show it in the Show and Tell segment since both the yarn and pattern originate with them.

Yesterday I spent 7 hours at a finishing workshop - part of the DKC Winter Workshop Series.  The instructor was Patrick Madden. The day was crammed with his challenging us to take our sweater knitting as far as we can with careful concern of how we treat and consider the yarn and its care as well as the pattern and its intricacies as we work the pieces of a pattern to completion and then assembly. Obviously the course beautifully supported my current project list and queue so I left with much enthusiasm and resolve to do just as he suggested.  Quite a few of the participants yesterday had done two other workshops with Patrick the day before (Japanese Pattern/Chart Reading and Swatching Boot Camp). While I was intrigued by the topics (among the many others offered as well) I suspected 

focusing my energies on  a single topic would be the better way to go for me.  Thank goodness I didn't feed my brain full of ideas with any more inspiration!

On Saturday we made an early trip to the market downtown (free range capon, mushroom and leek sausages, local eggs laid the day before - can't beat the market!).  

Once back home I spent about 8 hours closeted in the laundry/furnace room doing tons of mending, darning, miscellaneous domestic repair and odd ball sewing.  I threw this together from remnants of slipcovers I made for the cottage years ago. 

I adore the fabric and it reminds me of our little place in the woods which, giant mounds of snow surrounding the house here in the city aside, the chirping of the chickadees, the angle of the sun and the length of the days is making me feel ever closer to opening again.  This of course prompts thinking about the garden AND Darling Daughter's birthday is this weekend AND with the beginning of the new month its time to ratchet up my workout AND there's interior painting I have to do in advance of the arrival of window blinds I've ordered - my mental mania, it would seem, extends past the knitting basket and beyond!