it may be an octopus

In the words of a friend who recently saw me working on this: "WHAT are you knitting?"

Contrary to appearances, it is not part of an octopus, nor is it a fancy, lacy loincloth. It will be a sweater when it is complete. This is only half of it, minus the bottom ribbing and the button bands, of course.

This, of course, is what happens when, after mulling over the sweater patterns in the latest Interweave Knits, I finally decide that I actually want to knit at least one of the sweaters in the book, and this coincides with my getting a sweater's worth of yarn in the guild swap (I also came home with a lot more sock yarn). In the normal way of things, I don't really want to knit sweaters out of Interweave. I'm more interested in their hat and sock patterns, and I lean towards independent designers when it comes to sweater patterns.

This issue, however, I came to the conclusion that I would like to knit at least two of the sweater patterns in the magazine, which is unprecedented for me (not that I've knit that many sweaters). So the Adriatic Cardi and the Coral Cardigan got added to my queue (coincidentally, I actually had the yarn for knitting them).

This is the Adriatic Cardi. The unusual construction caught my eye, as did the simplicity of the finished product. It's captured my fancy enough that my plan is to finish it before the end of the month so I can submit it as this month's homework for the Harry Potter Knitting and Crochet House Cup group on Ravelry (why, yes, I am a geek, how nice of you to notice). I'm going for a yardage bonus, plus extra effort for the fact that once the sweater is done, I'm overdyeing it so it'll be a nice shade of green, instead of the more blah beigey-brown (in an attempt both to knit a sweater more quickly than usual, and to live up to the name of Ravenclaw). Basically, this is the only thing I've been knitting for the last two weeks, except for the occasional round on the sock in my purse.

I'm looking forward to the day, hopefully in about a week and a half, when I can sew the seams so it'll turn into something that resembles a sweater. Also, blocking it will make it look like a sweater for me, not a cardigan for a lamp post.