Sometimes It's Time to Take A Break

I've been working off and on on that Elfin Shawl all summer.  There have been both major and minor frogs.  Right now I'm nearly back to where I was after the major frog, but I'm there for the second time since I had to pull out about 12 rows again last week (thank heavens for my life line!).  I really was ready for some "mindless knitting" where I could remember that I like to knit, that it relaxes me, that it's fun to do while I watch oh, say a marathon of Poirot via Netflix.  So this week I've started a lovely top down wrap cardigan.  It's in my favorite teal blue and I've already knit the whole first skein worth of yarn (which means I'm already over one 6th done with it, and I've only been working on it for four days (and far from constantly).  It's worsted weight, it's on size 8 needles, and it's a lot of just plain old knit, or just plain old purl with an occasional increase thrown in.  There's no lace pattern, if the stitches fall off the needles they're pretty easy to pick up again.  If they drop down a couple of rows they're easy to get back where they belong.    I can actually envision finishing this thing by, oh, maybe the end of next week. 

I will keep on with the shawl eventually (I even knit a few rows on it this week), but I'm done obsessing with it for the moment.  Maybe if I stuff it aside for awhile it will decide to play nice and cooperate instead of dropping stitches willy nilly.  Badly behaved knits frequently end up in the UFO pile (unfinished objects).  I don't want that shawl to end up there, but I've got other projects I'd like to do, and I don't want to spend all my time on something that refuses to cooperate.  So for the moment the shawl is in "time out." and the nice wrap cardigan is getting my attention.

Of course I'm currently fighting a case of startitis.  I saw some lovely sock yarn, a cute pattern for a baby sweater, a couple of maternity sweater patterns (can you guess there's another grandbaby on the way), and I even contemplated crocheting a granny square afghan for about 30 seconds this afternoon (I haven't crocheted anything in years).  I'm hoping that disciplining myself to finish this sweater will help stave off multiple projects all over the house.

Oh, in case anyone is interested here's the link to the pattern for the current sweater http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/-263-neck-down-wrap-cardigan  It's actually the sort of pattern that someone could do for their very first sweater project.  The directions are pretty clear, although I don't like the side increases after you divide for the sleeves on the "cast on one stitch" end.  Instead of doing that I'm purling in the front and back of the last purl stitch on the previous row because I think it makes a neater edge to pick up stitches from later on and it better matches the knit in the front and back of the last stitch at the end of the row.  BTW for anyone who likes the Yarn Harlot, this is a sweater pattern that she supposedly really likes.  There are lots of examples of the sweater at Ravelry in lots of different sizes, so you can get a good idea what it would look like on just about any figure.

Now to get back to my knitting, and back to Poirot.