Planning phase...

Well, the Passiflora was a short-lived project.  I knit the first inch or two before realizing I just don't like the yarn.  I mean, it's a perfectly nice yarn for something and someone, but not for this for me.  The color was too grandma-ish, and the gauge was too loose-looking.  I don't know.  Just wasn't cutting the mustard. So I frogged it.  Still want to knit the pattern sometime, but not sure what yarn I'll use when that time comes, and that time is just not now, I'm afraid.


Enter the Traveling Sweater.  Look how cozy and useful! Look how not-summery! (I hate heat, and knitting this makes me think how cozy autumn will be when it gets here.) Look at the brand! It was over before it even began - there was no use resisting the attraction.  I ordered the yarn and the pattern, it arrived, and I cast on.  Love, love, love knitting this.  It's fairly simple, so far, at least, with just enough short rows to keep it interesting.  And the yarn is so luscious with such subtly shifting color (I ordered it in the Manly, Yes But I Like It Too colorway, which is what I believe was used for the sample shown on the pattern, that devoted to the goal of wearing that exact sweater am I) that I just can't put it down.  It's got an interesting construction, too, so I'm excited to put it together at the end.  You knit a big rainbow-shaped piece and two sleeve/back pieces.  Plus, the designer is on Ravelry and taking part in the knit-along on the Socks That Rawk board, and she answers everyone's questions (mine included) super-fast and super-encouragingly.  Not one bad thing to say about this experience.  Except that it isn't autumn yet.  But I can't really hold anyone accountable for that, so I'll try to move on.

The only snag is that I'm leaving for a week-long cruise to Bermuda in a week's time, and I'm not sure a lapful of wool is quite the right accessory for the trip.  So I'm contemplating some lighter-weight projects to take instead.  Sure, the voice of reason might remind me that I've got half a Hedera to knit and 1.8 Bellatrix to go, which would both be perfectly appropriate cruise knits.  But the voice of temptation thinks a Citron shawl might be the thing.  Or a Fernfrost.  Or maybe a Lavalette? There's some Wollmeise whispering to me from the stash bin, as well as a skein of beautiful Tess laceweight that I had completely forgotten about and just accidentally unearthed.  Which voice will be loudest? The suspense is terrible.  I hope it lasts!