Despite recent progress, both the bug sweater and giranimals #1 have a ways to go before they are done. I've got a ton of ends to weave in on both. The bug sweater still needs a neck and giranimals #1 has some tricky seaming and the pocket embroidery left to do. These won't be finished this week and I have to keep myself from getting all crazy trying to get them done real quick. So I've given myself a day to relax.

Relax yarn, that is. The front and the back of elizabeth III are blocking and I've ripped back the sleeves to the elbows in order to reknit them a bit smaller. Remember how big the sweater was when I finished it the first time?! Back then after I realized that she was way to big, I asked:

When does it become time to give up on a project? How many times are you willing to redo a garment that you really love to get it right? More specifically, what the heck should I do with my elizabeth I sweater?? The options are:

1. Just leave it and love it.

2. Redo the neck so that the emergency omigod-this-is-huge decreases are less visible and leave the rest, let's say, to drape very loosely.

3. Undo raglan seams, frog front, back and sleeves down to the armholes (again!) and try to math-up some smaller/shorter version of the top part. It would fit better around the bust and the shoulders, but the body would still not be form fitting at all.

4. Undo all seams, frog entire front and back, reknit them in the smaller size and frog the sleeves as necessary to have raglan decreases match.

5. Throw it in the back of the closet and never speak of it again.

I'm proud to say that I opted for number four - the most ambitious of the productive solutions. I was encouraged to see that others have made the choice to rip, like Theresa and Bonne Marie and most recently Melissa. Melissa's sweater was in Jaeger's fabulous Chamonix yarn. That yarn is so nice, you can't waste it on a sweater that you don't absolutely love. And that's the way I felt about elizabeth III, both the design and the yarn (Marks & Kattens Orkide). I can't just like this sweater; I have to be able to love it. I was reassured that I'd made the right choice the other night, while watching The Mexican on cable. Julia Roberts asks Brad Pitt: "When you really love someone, but it just isn't working out, when is enough enough." "Never." You said it, Brad. Now there's some good knitting advice from Julia Roberts!

And so the yarn is hanging in the bathroom working its kinks out, again. At least I know that it holds up to washing real well! No need for new pictures here, since it looks just like it did last fall: blocking and relaxing.