Knitting with company

One of my goals for 2009 is to knit myself a sweater. I made on attempt back in 2002 making this sweater, but it didn't turn out well. I don't love the high-contrast of the waist band, the neck is far to wide to ever stay on my shoulders, and it overall just isn't my style.

Enter this (in celtic mist) lovely yarn, a gift from mom, and Carolyn. Carolyn suggested making a Central Park Hoodie, and while the sweater seems immensely popular on Ravelry, I take that as a positive sign. Plus, just because ___2,346___ (as of today) people have made this sweater, it isn't like I'm going to run into many of them. Also? Sarah has made TWO of these, and she knows what she's doing.

I was feeling a bit conflicted about using my yarn for this pattern - I didn't want to buy any new yarn, but I'm not sure the Tweed and the pattern are a good match. The recommended stitch gauge is 5.5 stitches/inch, but the pattern calls for 4.25. That's a pretty big difference. So after playing around with needles for a bit, I have hit on something in the neighborhood of 4.33 sts/inch with larger than recommended needles. I fear this might make for slightly airy fabric, but I hope the yarn will bloom into something lovely and perfect. Is it possible to meet somewhere in the middle, between my hopes and fears? I'm swatched and ready to go - just need to find some uninterrupted time when I can reliably count to 170.

I've also signed on for SockWars IV. I participated in the first Sock Wars, and that was in fact the first (and second) pair of socks I ever knit. The first battle didn't go so smoothly, but with hundreds of participants around the world and a tornado in Scotland affecting the organizer, who was surprised? This round seems to have learned a lot from previous battles, so I'm hoping the flakes will be weeded out, reducing disappointment. The game works like a game of assassin: you have your "target's" shoe size, and you try to knit and mail them the killer sock before your assassin does the same to you. It's a weird kind of game, because the loser gets to knit maybe half a sock and gets rewarded with a whole pair, while the winner might knit a dozen or more and he/she still gets rewarded with one pair. But knitters are already thought of as odd by the muggles. I'm obviously not all that fast at making a pair of socks, but when my feet are to the fire we'll see how fast I can go. There's still time to join, if you feel up to the challenge.