A plain ol' maroon sweater

You may have gathered this, but I really love to read. I read when I'm knitting plain-ish things, I always read when I'm eating lunch, and I like to read before bed... so I end up reading a lot of books. One of my all-time favorites is The Help. Great book. I re-read it a month or two ago, then randomly happened on the movie on tv. Normally I don't watch movies made from books I love (coughHarryPottercough) but my husband was out of town, and I like Emma Stone, so I gave it a go. Um, it's fantastic. It stayed true (enough) to the book, the acting was great, and the outfits- oh my gosh, the outfits. I got weirdly obsessed with this one particular sweater- deep scoop neck, maroon, fitted, shorted sleeves- then bing! Lightbulb went off. I CAN MAKE THAT RIGHT NOW. I had a sweater's worth of DK weight maroon yarn in my stash, I know how to make a top-down sweater, drop everything and start now. Normally I don't do things like that. For one, I have about a bajillion knitting commitments at any given time, and can't really spend my knitting time on not-paid work. For two, I don't really need more sweaters. And for three, there was no three because I started that sweater within 20 minutes of finishing the movie.

Because it was purely for fun knitting, and very simple stockinette, I admit that I didn't pay a ton of attention while I was making it, which sucks, because it doesn't fit the way I had in mind. The bust is ok, but there's a lot of extra fabric in the body (which I sort of gathered into the back and secured with the belt, ahem), and the bottom tends to ride up because there's too much ease. I can't decide if I want to re-knit from the waist down, or if I want to do something quite drastic like use my sewing machine to take it in at the sides, which is total sacrilege, or if I should just leave it as-is and vow to pay more attention in the future.

I knitted the body on my new Knitter's Pride Nova Cubics. The needles are square instead of round, which is supposed to be easier on your hands than traditional needles. I can't put my finger on what exactly, but there definitely was something awesome about knitting with them. I knitted for hours on that sweater and never got sore hands. Want to know the best thing about these needles? The cord didn't need to be soaked in hot water when I took them out of the package. That is literally the best thing I can think of when it comes to circulars. I think I gasped out loud then did a little jig when I realized. That's the way to create a life-long customer, people. No cable soaking.

They seriously came out of the package looking exactly like this! So great.

Full disclosure: I got the needles for free in exchange for a review. No lies though, I freaking love these needles.