I'm having a love/hate relationship with this sweater (The Fog Sweater by Tiennie). I love the yarn, I love the pattern, I love the way the fabric feels. What I hate is k1,p1 rib. Endless swaths of k1,p1 rib. It's going to make a beautiful sweater, but I'm having a really hard time with it. I've taken a break from knitting for a few weeks, since my fingers and hands were unhappy with the ribbing. I really need to start up again; I've told Brian his sweater would be ready before Christmas. Unfortunately, this is all I've knitted so far: I'm about 1/3 of the way up to where I need to be before I start shaping for the armholes. If I'm going to get this done before winter, I really need to start working on it.  I really shouldn't be complaining... I was looking for an "easy sweater" for my first sweater, and this is definitely it. Drop shoulders, basic shaping, nothing but ribbing. My only worry is if I got my gauge correct, as I'm using a different yarn than Tiennie did for this sweater. My swatch looked ok, so my fingers are crossed. Oh. Word of advice: Don't use black yarn on anything that requires you to actually see your stitches. I've lost count of the times I've had to fix my errors because I was watching TV and knitting... it's really easy to lose your place with black yarn and k1,p1 ribbing.

Progress has been made on Brian's sweater. I finally found a pattern I liked, that would work with the yarn I had. The sweater is called "The Fog Sweater", based on a sweater the designer saw in the movie "The Fog". It's a simple drop-sleeve sweater with a LOT of ribbing; the body of the sweater is all 1x1 rib. It's not too bad now that I've done about an inch of it, but I can see that it will probably drive me crazy before I'm finished. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="470" caption="The Fog Sweater by Tiennie"] [/caption] So far, I've done all the bottom ribbing and about an inch or so into the main body of the sweater. I haven't been able to do it as fast as I like, because all that ribbing hurts my hands. So, maybe I'll have it done by Christmas. I'm using KnitPicks "Wool of the Andes" worsted in Coal (which is about as black as you can get yarn). If I could buy the yarn again, I would choose a lighter color, because knitting black yarn in anything but bright sunlight is a pain in the butt. Oh well, live and learn, I suppose. I really like how it's coming out, though. It's a nice fabric, not too heavy, and not too scratchy. He'll probably be able to wear it without a shirt underneath if he wants to. We shall see. [caption id="attachment_480" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="The Fog Sweater bottom ribbing"] [/caption] It'll be fun, right?