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WIP Wednesday: Three Sweaters?!

...Don't worry, one of them is a baby sweater, I haven't lost my mind completely!

It all started innocently enough: after finishing a few hat projects, I wanted to start something new with one of the many sweater quantities that have been lurking in my stash for too long. Never mind that I am still working on my So Faded sweater! Originally, I was going to make a beautiful cabled cardigan with some Berroco Vintage Chunky I'd bought from Webs many moons ago, but I had issues getting gauge. It's been in time out til I had the gumption to knit a gauge swatch yet again, but I just don't think such a complicated sweater is in my future. Simple, soothing knits are way more my speed these days, since I generally don't have much brain power left at the end of the day when I sit down to knit. There is also the issue of arm/hand pain, which has been recurring over the past few years - the last few cabled projects I've worked on haven't been pain-free, and they were just hats. I just can't imagine trying to get through an entire cabled sweater.

So I went back to Ravelry and did a quick search for a more suitable sweater pattern, and came across Veera Välimäki's Sticks and Steel. Now that looks like a sweater I could knit in a reasonable amount of time! I also like the very forgiving shape and style, I'm all about the oversized drapey sweater these days. Over the weekend, I knit my swatch, and once it dries, I can use my new favorite tool from Knitter's Pride to count those stitches (seriously, how cute are these - and the window measures 4" exactly! Genius!).

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Then the need arose for a project that could travel outside of the house, and I decided to start a cute baby sweater since I have a friend who is expecting soon. I justified this quite easily since I was at a funky place with my Purlbreak, the So Faded is definitely an at-home project at this point, and my gauge swatch was already knit. I can justify just about anything, especially when it comes to starting new projects.

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As noted above, a small bit of progress has been made on my So Faded sleeves. It's still completely awkward to photograph since I'm doing 2-at-a-time, but here is my best attempt:

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And now that my other WIPs are off the needles, I have been spending more time on my Zen Yarn Garden Purlbreak - last night I added the second color!

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I don't have any FO's to share this Friday, but I should have some other fun stuff to share with you next week. See you then! 

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