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Last Friday was our first top-down sweater knitalong class, and I’m so tickled with my Friday knitters, I just have to tell you.

I’ve got seven — count ‘em, SEVEN — knitters who are going to knit a top-down sweater along with me!!  It will be a project extending over a few months, so watch this space for some pictures of FO’s in about March or so.  (Although we’ll probably get some pics along the way, too, I suspect.)

Why such a long, drawn-out process?  Well, partly because of those holidays that are coming up, and a 3-week trip that DH and I are going to take in January.  And partly because life happens to the best of us, and I want everyone to have plenty of time to enjoy knitting their sweaters, and not feel like they are under the gun.  Of course, partly so I have plenty of time to babble on about everything I know about making sweaters, with a captive audience forced to listen to me.  And partly because, while I’m not going to name any names, it will drive Sheryl nuts be a good exercise in discipline for some people to start, stick with and finish a sizeable knitting project… 

Oh, and of course, have it fit properly, too.

This is going to be SO MUCH FUN, I may not be able to stand it!

Another reason Friday was a fun day was because one of our "occasional" Friday knitters sneaked out of work for a bit, and surprised me with a gift of one of her UFO’s.  Well, you know what they say:  one knitter’s forlorn UFO is another knitter’s treasure, or something like that.  And in this case, it’s 100% true.  The original knitter is so done with this bad boy, there’s no question.  But I, on the other hand, am in love.

There are several reasons I am thrilled with this UFO.  Of course, you will have noticed that it’s MOHAIR.  And not only that, it’s Welcomme "le super mohair" — bonus points for it being French!

Another is, it’s a fabulously yummy subtle shade of peach.  Just the thing for a redhead.

But the very best thing about this UFO is that it actually predates my own knitting career!   I learned to knit in 1986; the original owner says the project originated circa 1985.  For some reason, I really love that!

Of course, I truly did like the 80′s to begin with, and I’m totally all over the whole retro thing.  As I keep threatening saying, in the world of fashion everything comes back around, and the 80′s will be no exception.   In fact, at lunch on Friday, we saw a 20-something girl wearing a denim miniskirt over black leggings, with a bright yellow top and matching yellow high heels!  It was totally early Madonna style, in Cyndi Lauper technicolors.  Except she didn’t have enough jangly jewelry on.  (But she did have a few tats.)

As I said at the time, "matchy-matchy with the shoes and the clothes — YESSSSS!"  Hey, I was good at matchy-matchy.  I even remember having yellow ballet flats to go with a yellow sweater, although I am pretty sure my yellow was not quite as offensive bright as what I saw on Friday.

One thing about the 80′s though:  it was the death knell for hand-knitting sweaters.  All those enormously oversized garments took a heckuva lot of yarn and a heckuva lot of time.  Case in point:  the UFO bag appears to contain a total of twelve balls, or more than 1600 yards of yarn, for a single size small sweater.  I am pretty sure I could get two of today’s style sweaters out of it, as long as we aren’t talking gobs of cables or bobbles or something.

So, get cracking and hand-knit yourself a sweater while it’s still within the realm of possibility!!