Olive Knitting

So, the FAMILY is descending on Italy next week. The whole clan – mom, dad, sister, brother-in-law, and the three kids. It’s the first such attempt to all be together on European soil since David and I have moved here. Wish us luck.

Before the 9 of us settle down for several days of Ligurian life, we are going to have a little adventure in Tuscany. We’re going to Florence for a few days to see the sights, then to Lucca and the 5 Terre (which is technically Liguria).

David and I were talking last night about how funny and great it will be to be back in Florence. We haven’t been there in a lot years. When we first started our adventure here in Italy 7 years ago, on what was supposed to be a year’s sabbatical, we thought we would live in Florence. We stayed there a few weeks but didn’t really find what we were looking for, which we did find, eerily almost to every last detail, in Assisi. Good bye Michelangelo, hello Francis. We were talking about how interesting it will be to notice the changes in us, our reactions, and interactions with the city given all we’ve been through and learned since last there.

In anticipation of a 6 hour train ride, I’m picking a new knitting project to start. My criteria were these:

1. It has to be a pattern already written down…nothing I make up myself that will require calculations, creativity, and a pen and paper. Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it.


2. It can’t involve a lot of tricky stitches that require concentration and stitch patterns. I’ve got my family here for God’s sake. We’ve got a lot of catching up to do and I don’t want to have to continually tell them to shut up because I’m counting.


3. I have to be able to use stash yarn Crayon (Knit Picks).
   

So I went to my favorite spring/summer Rowan magazine (Number 25) and chose this:

I love this sweater so much. In fact, I think I bought the magazine because of that sweater. I’ve started it 100 times and just have a really hard time making it past the first line, “Cast on 425 sts”. Given it fits all the criteria above, I thought now would be the time to actually make this sweater. I chose these nice Easter colors from the Crayon stash and this morning I began the marathon 425 cast on…and gave up for 101st time. *

Now I’m knitting this:

Can’t get much simpler than that!

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go clean my fridge. I’d hate to have my mom wasting her precious Italian holiday with Mr Clean and a rag because I left some gorgonzola in the cheese drawer too long.

*For the record, I did actually make the whole 425 sts but the combination of tiny needles and the texture of the yarn made for miserable knitting. Plus, that I didn’t check my gauge and that cute little sweater I like so much in the photo when I finished was going to fit David. While he does look good in pink, the style is all wrong for him.