Goodbye Green?

I'm a little confused about the seasonal change. Stores are already pushing harvest themes, but the temperatures were in the 80s today. I'm not sure when Labor Day became the official start of Fall in America, but I'm sticking with what my calendar says: September 22nd is actually when the autumnal equinox is due to happen. In the meantime, I'm going to keep wearing shorts.

In anticipation of slightly cooler weather though, I decided to start knitting a cotton cardi a few weeks ago. This one in fact. And this weekend, I nearly finished it. Remember this gorgeous green goodness? It's just as beautiful to knit with -- seriously. It's Pima Clasico 100% cotton in 'kiwi' and it feels like butter. I managed to get the lot for half price at my local yarn store. (Resistance was futile.)

This is the first seamless sweater I've ever made. While I usually don't mind seaming up pieces of a sweater (I learned to sew long before I learned to knit!) I did find it a joy to realize that once I finished the sleeves, all I'd have to do is weave in the ends, block it and put a few buttons down the front.

The only downside to seamless knitting is that you can't do the sleeves two-at-a-time to ensure that they are the exact same size, especially if the pattern says to knit to a certain length. This time, I just kept track of my number of rows and made sure I repeated the process exactly on the second sleeve.

I'm happy to report that with all of the actual knitting done at this point, and besides having to rip out a few rows because I forgot a buttonhole, there were no major catastrophes (unlike that last blue cardigan...)

I was also pretty excited to use these lovely double pointed knitting needles. I have a ton of vintage needles that I've acquired cheaply and en masse (so many that I use them for photo projects, like this one) but these are some of my absolute favorite. 

I found them at the 'I Knit Weekender' event in London several years ago. (You can view their London-based shop here.) I happen to be in town the same week that the convention was happening and I found myself staring at rows and rows of yarn, books and needles. These tortoise shell resin double-pointed needles came home with me at a bargain.  

I hope everyone had a lovely Labor Day! I certainly did, although I'm not quite ready for summer to end just yet -- I love green. I suppose I'll have the cardigan to help me with the transition, in any case.