Nicole's rollneck nears completion

Hooray!  I have all but finished my daughter's chianti Brown Sheep yarn roll neck sweater.  It has been lovely yarn to work with and the pattern is wonderful brainless knitting from Yankee knitting.  I brought it along on our blueberry picking extravaganza Friday, but was unable to go beyond sewing the pieces together as I had not brought along the short, circular #5 needle to use in completing the neck edge.  Upon returning home I was determined to finish it.  But there were 57 pounds of berries to attend to.  (My husband is a fanatic about antioxidants, read: blueberries!).  So I knitted in between scooping berries into plactic freezer bags.  Thank goodness we don't do anything elaborate with them.  By the time I had finished I was dizzy with fatigue and so didn't attempt to weave in the loose ends. 

Maybe for my next car ride, when I also plan to start my second felted bag.  I can use the leftover yarn from Nicole's sweater and I'm itching to start it.  I carried the first one I made today for the first time today and it feels great to lower your hand inside to fish out some necessity.  It's funny that in my other creative pursuits I almost never repeat creations.  But with knitting, when I find something I like, I make it more than once.  I think I've made 5 of those rollnecks!  Maybe it has something to do with my lack of confidence in my knitting compared  to other things.  I just finished reading the Knitting Sutra by Susan G. Lydon and she asked herself something that hit home with me.  I've been knitting since I was a little girl, so why don't I consider myself an accomplished knitter? I need to strive, as she did, to really master the art of knitting and not shrink from the hard patterns. 

Today when the instructor of my complex cloth class saw the purse she said she thought I should teach a class in felting.  Immediately I thought of how I lack expertise.  Well, it's time I gained some, or the self recognition of what I already have!