Resignation.

No, not that kind. Or maybe that kind.. what were *you* thinking?

The Shapely Tank did not stretch *at all*. So I have resigned myself to trying to cram in something suitable as a substitute in the next week. I decided to do a ribbed tank from Hip to Knit and picked out a rather luscious burgundy color of Caron Simply Soft. So far it's beautiful and soft and hopefully it will be much more successful than the Shapely Tank.

That's not, however, what I've been frantically working on this evening. Because this evening, despite Stephanie's repeated warnings about the dwindling time remaining until The Big Day(tm), it dawned on me sometime last night that I have a week to finish Jack's sweater. So I sat down tonight while he is off gaming and relaxing after completing something like two-thirds of his finals and finished the back of the sweater and am now some six inches into the front (after the armhole split) and ready to start the neck shaping. Goal is to finish the body tonight.

And then it occured to me that six skeins of Cascade Cotton Rich is not going to make sleeves long enough for my big-and-tall husband. I expect that three skeins per sleeve will end somewhere around 20 inches. I think I need at least 24 to 26 inches (will have to measure one of his sweatshirts again to be sure). *sigh* So off I wander into the web of online knitting suppliers in search of 4 additional skeins (even though I'll likely only need 2.. not going to have to do this *twice*, after all), which I find and plunk an additional $25 on my check card to get.

Here's hoping they arrive by, oh, say, Wednesday at the latest. They're being shipped to work (priority mail from California), which is where I'll have to complete the sleeves so he won't see me working on them (what he'll see me frantically working on is the aforementioned ribbed tank (which has to be finished and wrapped by Friday night), and should I finish that with time to spare, maybe his Fuzzy Feet) so if they arrive Wednesday, that should be okay timing.

Not ideal, mind you.. I've thought that just in case the dye lots don't match, I'm going to have to strand the mismatched skeins in, pr'bly in fibonacci stripes, which means I can't just knitknitknit until one sleeve is finished and just get as far as I can with the yarn I have. Or rather, I can pr'bly safely knit through one skein on each arm, but after that, I need to wait, just in case.

Fortunately, this is the second of two gifts, the first being City of Villans, which he'll get at my sister's on Saturday, so if needed I can shoo him away somewhere Sunday morning (or just get up before him and hope it's enough time) before we leave for his grandma's and then his family's Christmast sometime in the mid-afternoon if I don't get things all wrapped up by Friday. And there's always the option of taking an "emergency" half day off Friday afternoon to go sit in a coffee shop somewhere and frantically knit my little fingers off in hopes of getting it done. It's not as though I expect things will be terribly busy Friday, anyway.

At least the sleeves are in the round..

Right then. Neck shaping.