Ravellenics Sweater: Days 4, 5, and 6 AND Interchangeable Needles

Have I mentioned yet how much I love the Olympics? I'm not really a sporty kind of girl. At all. I enjoy watching football, and that's about it. I loathe basketball but tolerate it for the sake of my son, who really enjoys playing basketball. And for the sake of my daughter, who is in pep band. (Yes, I realize my hatred for basketball is entirely at odds with the fact that I was born and raised in Indiana.) But the Olympics! It's the international representation and the camaraderie and the fact that we don't get to watch these kinds of sports all the time. I mean, Luge? I watch luge exactly once every four years. And it's amazing! Curling? Please! I love curling! But the only time I get to watch it on TV is during the Olympics. (Also, curling is really fun; if you a have a local curling club, check them out!)

That's me at the club in Indy. Five years ago!

Last night, as soon as I got home, I flipped on the TV to CNBC to watch curling. At 7:30, my son (bless his little 12-year-old heart) said, "When this is over, can we please watch something all of us want to watch?" I said, "Sure!" He said, "When will this be over? " I said, "February 23." He didn't like that too much, and replied, "That's what I was afraid of."

So, it's been a few days since I updated you on my sweater. At the end of Day 4, it looked like this:

You can see that I started one of the sleeves. It's so much easier to knit the sleeves at this point rather than waiting until the body is done and then having to wrestle the entire sweater around to knit the sleeves.

I forgot to take a pic at the end of Day 5. But, at the end of Day 6, it looked like this:

Yes! The first sleeve is complete and the second started!!  Also, it's amazing how different light makes the colors in this yarn look different. The first picture was taken in the back room at work under fluorescent lights. The second was taken on the floor in my living room last night under soft white whatever bulbs my husband put in the lamps. (He firmly hates the compact fluorescents, so I know it's not those.)

I'm hopeful to get a good portion of that second sleeve done today, and the goal is to have both sleeves done by the end of the day Friday. That would give me almost a week to complete the body and a couple of days (weekend days!) to do the bands around the fronts and neck.

One thing I have really come to love with this project is my Knitter's Pride Symfonie Dreamz Interchangeable Circular Needles. Not that I didn't love them before, but with this project in particular, they have been a huge time saver. I use the cables and end caps as stitch holders. So, when I'm ready to knit, all I have to do is attach the needle tips and go. No slipping stitches around, no picking up stitches from a spare thread. It's wonderful.

See the red circles? Those mark where the end caps are. While I was knitting the body, the back neck and sleeve stitches were each held on separate 16" cables. (The cables themselves aren't 16" long; they are used along with short needle tips to create 16" needles.) I should point out that the sets don't come with oodles of cables. However, the cables are super cheap--less than $3 each, and they come with end caps. Totally worth it!