Sweater progress (Vivian) and book obsession

As I was writing yesterday's post, I realized that I've made significant progress on the sweater I'm knitting, Ysolda Teague's Vivian. That's despite the fact that on the body I keep needing to drop back vertical cable sections and re-do the crossings because I'm not paying enough attention. There's no real excuse except distraction. Fortunately, I'm pretty quick at dropping and reknitting sections, and I don't mind much having to do so, although I do take the need as a measure of where my brain is (or isn't) functioning.

Last night I discovered that I have to drop down and re-do for a second time a small section that I've already done once. It's not like I don't have the whole thing charted or that I'm not looking at the charts. It's just that my primary focus is definitely elsewhere. I'm knitting to be knitting, so having to reknit bits doesn't matter much. And I'm only knitting during nearly forced breaks from working on the book, when my mental capacities have all been drained and I'm in serious need of reserve-filling R&R. Oh, well! I'm enjoying the knitting and I'll get a wearable sweater out of the effort. Some day.

Here are the sleeves, which have been done for a while, so they're not big news at this point:

And here's the body, which is the part that's significantly bigger than it was the last time it showed up here:

That's the whole body, worked back-and-forth in one piece (it's just smooshed together to fit on my standard cardboard background). I'm almost at the underarms. I think it might be long enough through the torso for me, which is potentially excellent and unusual news. I'll check, though, before beginning the next phase of shaping, and will adjust if necessary. I'm in the middle of a row—an indicator of the bits and pieces of time within which I'm knitting. I don't usually stop in the middle. That blue cable needle shows the next bit of sweater where I'll be dropping down a 16-stitch panel and putting the cable crossings where they need to be. They're perfectly regular as they are. They just don't do some of the necessary extra maneuvers.

The reason for the absentmindedness about the cables and the mid-row stopping is, of course, The Project, which is, at the moment, manifesting as the series of book deadlines. I am still not quite ready to talk about the whole effort at any length: I need to not think about it but just do it.

Yet I can offer some milestones:

• We've reviewed the copyedited manuscript and turned it back over to the at-least-three editors who are currently actively working on this project at the publishing house (there are at least five editors involved overall . . . plus a bunch of other people). "We" is Carol Ekarius and me, the two authors.
• I've assembled more reference materials for illustrations.
• I've been corresponding with two editors and one art director about photography and illustrations.
• And I'm still spinning samples (for the photography, which has—in this case fortunately—not been scheduled yet).

I am glad to get back to spinning, after the detour for the copyediting and illustration/photography concerns.

Day before yesterday I got past one stumbling-block fiber: there are some fibers any given individual with some experience at the craft spins intuitively, and some that she or he does not. This was definitely in my personal "does not" category. With more time, I could probably get pretty decent at that particular fiber. Time is in too-short supply for that. I had to punt.

And so it goes. One step—or twist, either knitted or spun—at a time.