Would you like the bad news first? ok, today I broke my yarn diet.

In my own defense, I successfully abstained from buying yarn for 2 months. Several days ago, I cast on the Minisweater you see pictured here. Getting gauge on this project took three or four tries–I even swatched, and re-swatched, and switched needles, and finally decided to hold the yarn double and swatch, and voila! GAUGE! I have lots to say about the yarn and pattern, more in a bit.

But yes, today when I was at my LYS buying two more balls of Berroco Comfort for the Minisweater (technically not breaking the yarn diet since I needed them to finish an existing project)…I purchased yarn I didn’t need, and the valiant resistance was defeated. There was a big sale today, so in addition to more Comfort, I bought one skein of Manos wool (it’s purple! and pinkish-purple!) and also two balls of Rowan Felted Tweed, which I’ve never worked with before but have in mind for fingerless gloves (and possibly a matching hat if I have enough left over). I spent about $36 dollars and saved $10 with the sale, and don’t plan on doing this regularly! I just felt like I deserved a little treat. But yeah, the yarn diet is officially over. The book diet, however, goes on!

So, back to the Minisweater. The pattern is very easy so far, though I’m not fond of the somewhat random “knit until it fits” method. I like sticking to a pattern closely, such as “knit 30[35,40] rows in stockinette stitch, then increase every other row…” Having to put the stitches on waste yarn and try on the sweater three or four times and measure the sleeves to estimate the size was kind of annoying, but at least I know it fits, right?

Thus far, I’m kind of iffy about the yarn. I love how soft it is, but as such, it’s already kind of prone to pilling. Also, it splits like mad! Which annoys me a lot. I found one knot out of two balls, which isn’t very bad. Luckily, the knot occurred at the end of a row, so that worked out ok. But I’m not sure if I’ll use this yarn again in the future.

This is sounding more like a finished object post rather than work in progress, so I’ll say more later when I’m closer to finishing!

Also, I have more exciting ideas/possible plans for that whole “I’ve decided to finish college” thing–more on that soon!