Saturday, June 28, 2008

Demi Part 1


My knitting drop out status has really wreaked havoc on this blog. Knitting was the driving force of this blog and given that I have yet to get fully back into the swing we’ll see how it goes.

I got a little pre-occupied to say the least.

Hart and I got obsessed with buying a house in Brooklyn, which 100% consumed our lives for a bit, well – a long while actually. In fact, a few of you may have seen a short lived (like 1 day) post in which I described my obsession with said house in Ditmas Park. Needless to say, we fell for a great neighborhood – the local DP blogs got a hold of my post and it became quite the rage on a neighborhood blog. As a result I immediately pulled it down because I was a little fearful that since I put everything out there - the sellers or the realtor would some how see it and our bidding position would be ruined.

And then there was Turkey – we just got back and it was an amazing trip. I have to say, one of the best things I love about Hart (and vice versa) is that we put traveling pretty much above everything. While I definitely am known to shell out some cash on shoes, outside of being diligent savers for the future – we save for big trips – both financially and in vacation time. We spent 2 ½ glorious weeks – Istanbul, Cappadocia and Ephesus – then a gorgeous drive down the coast to Bodrum, Olundeniz (Blue Lagoon!) and Kas. I hope to post a little more on this later.

Back to the knitting. The thing that sparked my return? Demi. My progress is above.

This whole project started off dramatically back in January. I actually ripped out my Central Park Hoodie with the intention of using the yarn – Tahki Donnegal Tweed. Ripping it out? It didn’t even really hurt. It was my first true true sweater with seaming, cables, neckbands, etc. But honestly, it never fit me properly and I really didn’t love the yarn – it’s pretty – but it just didn’t work. Anyway – I was staring at it for awhile – everytime I looked it was screaming Demi. So I pulled it out, wound it back up, cast on for Demi, and frankly, I just really hate this yarn!

So I gave up on that I bought new bonafide Demi yarn back in February (that is 4 months ago, yikes). The Point had a crazy sale and I immediately ran down to find the perfect yarn. It is Naturally Harmony 10Ply 100% merino. So I got home, I cast on and…didn’t I promise not to get into another Dollar and a Half frustrating mess? Anyway – it stalled. It’s hard – it’s not like the Minimalist Cardigan (which I pretty much finished 9 months ago and just can’t muster the strength to block and seam) which is pretty calming, mindless, rewarding. Actually – it’s not hard but it requires full attention – there is no tv watching, no subway knitting – full focus.

So it did stall but then last weekend I did a massive clean up – got a stash box all readied and swore I would pick it up. At about the same time I saw what Parikha did in like a minute (okay I'm exaggerating)!! That kind of pushed me to get going. So there we have it.

This puppy is going to take a long time. I am giving myself a 3 month deadline – by October 1, 2008 I will be showing this as a FO.