When I first learned to knit, I decided immediately that a sweater would be a cool thing to make. (Actually, if I'm honest, that wasn't an immediate decision. First I made some handwarmers.) So I found a nice, simple sweater pattern that basically just told me to make rectangles in stockinette stitch and sew them together when I was finished.

Easy? Yes.
Quick? No.

Somehow I had the patience to finish the front piece of the sweater (about 15 inches long), but when I started on the back piece, I only got about three inches before stopping. It was sort of daunting, the idea that I would have to keep going at a pace of about three minutes per 90 stitch row for about a billion more rows. (More accurately, about _____ rows.) I'd already finished the first half, there was no reason why I should stop. But I did, and every so often my mom would come into my room, pick up the four inches of yarn still on the needle, and ask, "Why'd you stop? This'll be great when it's finished." And I agree, it will be great.

Because I've started it up again. After struggling for an hour to get three rows of the star stitch, it was nice to switch to knitting a couple of inches in stockinette stitch while watching a documentary about Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie (who are possibly my favorite comedy duo of all time.) My friend Joanna has been asking me to make her a sweater for a while now, and I keep telling her it'll be finished soon. I tried to make her a really fancy cabled sweater, but mistakes would come up again and again, and I just gave up. (This happened before the project started, so it's not an "official" setback. I am still technically un-setbacked.) That's part of the reason one of the things I wanted to practice cabling, so I could do it more easily in the future.

So Joanna makes sure to Skype me every few days with just the message "SWEATER" and I have to update her on the progress, which is usually disappointing. I feel bad that it's not getting finished, so I've set out on a mission right now to finish this half a sweater I've already got, and give it to her. Hopefully she'll get it when it's still actually cold out. This is good intrinsic motivation, I think, and she doesn't even realize she's doing it. But still, I promised her I'd make a sweater, and now I feel the need to follow up on that promise.

Now, back to the star stitch which I briefly talked about earlier. I'm making a scarf using it, and I initially cast on thinking "Oh, this seems easy enough." Not quite. The stitches get incredibly tight, and I find myself having to pick the stitches away from the needle and pulling them over, instead of them sliding off on their own. I'm trying to knit as loosely as I can to make it easier, but it somehow tightens back up anyway. The pattern recommends using bigger needles than usual to keep the stitches big and easy to work with, but I'm already using my biggest pair. I really want to make this scarf, though, so I'll keep trying.

We'll see how it goes!