The Eyes have it

Chicago Sightseeing: Our summer "holiday" in Chicago involved a me attending a 5 day review course. The only way to make it through lectures that went from 7 until 5:30 was to bring some knitting. (By the way - did you know that if the atmospheric humidity is >70%, your sweat cannot evaporate? That was one little factoid I picked up during the course that I am quite enthralled with given that I don't think I will ever get used to humid Southern Ontario summers. Although I firmly believe that the statement "It's a dry cold, so it's not so bad" is complete and utter bullshit when the temperature is below -20C, it is waaaay easier to tolerate heat when the humidity is low) This vest is from a Gedifra booklet. I probably could have finished this before the end of the flight home if I hadn't ended up frogging several sections a few times. Since I forgot to bring a cable needle with me, I ended up using various other implements; first a swizzle stick, then a pen, and finally a crochet hook. (Cabling without a needle wasn't feasible because I often had to put my knitting down to take notes). What's the fun of knitting if you don't repurpose non-knitting items from time to time? Although the pattern is written for worsted weight yarn, I used Cotanani that I picked up at Passionknit on clearance this June. It claims to be DK weight, but which seemed much plumper to me, and I was able to get gauge without it being too loose. I am on a bit of a vest/tank kick right now - for a few reasons: 1. With the hot humid weather we have been having, it just seems wrong to knit something with long sleeves. Even if the weather will be different by the time I finish it. 2. I have acquired a collection of yarns in amounts less than that required to knit a full adult garment, but more than what would be needed for a hat or mittens. 2.1 Even though the amount might be perfect for a scarf, I do not like knitting scarves because they seem to take forever and for a huge percentage of the project they do not appear to get any longer no matter how much you knit. 2.2 Even though the amount might be perfect for a baby/small child garment, I knit very few baby/child garments because I am selfish most of the yarns I have are too nice high maintenance, plus I usually buy vibrant/dark colours. 3. Along with a long torso which requires extra knitting, I also have long arms, which require even more extra knitting. Vests and tanks have no arms. 4. I usually wear a lab coat at work, and a sweater in anything other than a very fine yarn is usually a bit too warm underneath. However, a vest is perfect, especially during the spring and fall when the air conditioning is turned up too high. This weekend after I finished sewing up the vest, I knit several swatches with 2 different yarns: Yin (clearance quantity) and Kiwi laceweight (which turned out to be a true laceweight, thus not an appropriate sub for Rowan 4 ply). I started on a Green Gable, but realized that in order to get gauge, the fabric would be too loose for my liking, so I instead am reswatching for Emerald Seas(because I was keen enough to swatch in the round for Green Gable, so now I need to swatch flat!). The Kiwi is going to be used for Arbor (with the yarn doubled up). In this case, I swatched flat, but now need to swatch in the lace pattern. Hmmmm...perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I am on a swatch kick right now. I am just cranking out those little 12cm x12 cm squares.