Lazy knitting days

I had a lot of plans for my days off (Fri & Sat) but then things got in the way. I really wanted to go hiking and finish painting my bedroom since right now only half of a wall is painted and that's nor exactly the look I was going for. Then I woke up to a torrential downpour and a hurt shoulder. What was there left to do but watch Smallville on DVD and knit? Good thing knitting doesn't use the shoulder muscles. I finished the back of the husband's flames sweater from the 2nd S nB book. Now all I have to knit is one more sleeve and then my LEAST favorite parts of knitting a sweater- blocking and seaming.

Knitting the flame on the sleeve was my 1st attempt at knitting intarsia and it was totally successful! I was expecting lots of frogging but after only having to rip out a few rows at the beginning, I got the hang of it. Here's a close up of my 1st intarsia motif. Pretty nice if I do say so myself.

As a reward for finishing the back, I started a new project.

The reasons I deserved a reward:
1) Knitting a large man's sweater is a LOT more work and takes a lot more time than what I have been knitting all summer- small women's tank tops for me.
2) Also, I'm knitting it with Lion Brand Woolease, which is not my favorite yarn. I started knitting it though when I lived really far away from a yarn store and only had access to Lion Brand yarn (well, Red Heart too, but I won't sink that low). Buying yarn over the internet didn't occur to me as I'm much too impatient to wait for it to arrive. So I wanted to take a break from the Woolease, though it's really not that bad.
3) Knitting miles of stockinette with a few increases thrown in is boring after a while. I love lace and cables and patterns- anything interesting.

So . . . The new project I started in the Gyrid tank from Elsebeth Lavold's book The Viking Knits Collection. I already have half the front finished and I must say that her cable patterns are not for the faint of heart but they are really cool! And her silky wool yarn is really nice to knit with. The finished top is going to be a Christmas present for my mom.