Stick A Fork In It!

Well, I'm about as close to being done as I can get without being done. The pieces for the Ropes & Picots cardigan are knitted, have been blocked and sewn together. The stitches for the neck and button bands are on the needles and three rows have been worked. That's where it's at right now.

Unfortunately, by 3:00 yesterday, I had to stop working on it. My wrists and arms were really feeling the weight of the cardigan and, after a couple of days of frantic knitting, needed a bit of a break. So what did I do?

Picked up the Scarf with No. 20 Edging from Victorian Lace Today. Apparently, I started this scarf in July and it's been sitting in my project basket since then. Of the 22 repeats required for the first edging, I had 16 completed. Yesterday, I finished the remaining 6 repeats and picked up the stitches for the center. That center is now more than half done as well.

In case you don't remember (I didn't; I had to look it up on Ravelry), the yarn is Fleece Artist Suri Blue, a wool/alpaca blend and is wonderful to work with! It's so soft! The pattern, as I said earlier, is from Victorian Lace Today. I've knit one other scarf in a similar manner and it's a fun way to do it.

First, the edging is knitted, the entire length of the scarf. Then, all but one of the stitches is cast off and stitches are picked up along the length and the center piece is worked on those stitches. After that, stitches are cast on for the second edging and it is knitted on to the center, like you would knit the border onto a circular shawl. The advantage of doing it this way is that there are no cast on/off sides to prohibit stretch; the cast on/off edges are at the short ends of the scarf and will be "hidden" with a crochet picot edge.

There's a chance I could have this done by New Year's Eve, but I have a feeling this will be the first finished object of 2010, even though the majority of the knitting will have been done in 2009. That's fine; I'm concentrating on the cardigan, which should be done today.

As for the title of this post, well.... it seems there are three things right now that are at about the same point... the cardigan, the scarf and the year. Just about time to stick a fork in it and call it done!