The knitting saga that was (and wasn't)

Pro v. anti Black Friday shoppers have always been very vocal, and I have always fallen very firmly in the "pro" camp. I try to resolve to buy less every year, but this year I really failed on that point, oops. I ended up buying a lot of things that I'm very excited about and will certainly use (unlike in previous years - oops again), but one of my favorites was the huge pile of yarn I picked up at Michael's. At less than $2 a skein, I couldn't control myself and ended up with...13 of them? 

I've been wanting a big comfy white sweater for a while so that I could create a look kind of like this: 

[Gotta love Pinterest outfit inspiration, am I right?]

Well, the yarn I bought ended up being way too bulky to create anything like those beautiful cables, but I scoured Ravelry trying to find something that would give me a somewhat similar look. (P.S. It is HARD to find something super cute that uses a reasonable amount of bulky yarn, FYI. I did find a million other patterns I hope to try, though!).

I bookmarked a bunch of patterns but was finally won over to the Hellebore seed stitch jacket by Drops Design thanks to Mille Frederiksen's beautiful long-sleeved version:

I spent a few days toiling away at this, trying to lengthen the sleeves in the process, and by the time I'd almost finished one front side, I realized that:
A) I'd already gone through 3 skeins for only 1/4 of this jacket,
B) The sleeves still weren't long enough, and
C) I just didn't love it anymore.

I put it aside for a few days trying to figure out what to do with it so I could avoid wasting all of that work, but I ended up deciding to frog it and put the longed-for white to better use. Top 2 contenders: the Fezziwig and the Josephine:

All of this is a long-winded way of saying that, following such a disaster/disappointment, I wanted something cute and cozy and above all, easy. I turned to the Muse, one of the patterns I bookmarked during my original look-through. It wasn't the long-sleeved white beauty I'd had my hopes set on, but it was crying out to be made up in the bright blue I bought! 

I whipped up a huge portion of this during a Sunday funday of crafting, Netflix, and Mexican food with a new and wonderful friend. I ended up needing to run to the store to buy 2 more skeins (for a total of 6 used) to finish it up, but all told, this only took me a week (and some very sore fingers)!

In general, the pattern's not too bad, but I did have some head-scratching moments. However, considering that this was the creator's first attempt at a knitting pattern, I'd say she did a pretty damn good job! The sweater is super warm and I've been wearing it about once a week, sometimes in place of a coat (though my arms tend to get a little cold, ha). 

 [Pretending I'm not that cold.]

[Giving in to reality.]

Are you as ready as I am for this winter to be over with?