(Mis)Adventures in Knitting

I love knitting-wait, let me rephrase that- I'm addicted to knitting. The hobby started innocently enough; I wanted to make some cute knitwear for my first baby, and the rest is history. As friends and family can attest to, I seldom go anywhere without some project on the needles. I always keep a project in my purse, and whenever we go out of town my knitting bag invariably comes along too. Poor Jason has gotten exceedingly expert at averting meltdowns when I'm faced with a knitting disaster (offer chocolate, soothing words, repeat). Once, when Elena discovered that I drew her name for Christmas she said "Guess I'll be getting something knit then". She was right.
Anyways, for the past two weeks I've been successfully working on a spring cardigan. I love the pattern, and I splurged on some gorgeous yarn for it: merino wool and tussah silk blend in a lilac purple. I faced so many problems in starting this one, that if I didn't want this sweater so bad I would have given up in disgust in February. Acheiving the correct gauge proved elusive, I had to knit up no less then five tension swatches. After working on the first two rows on the first sleeve for an entire evening I was a raving lunatic (ask Jason, he was there). The needles were too blunt to easily pick up the stiches, so knit each one was a laborious process. No sooner were the stiches on the double-pointed needles then they happily slid off the other end! I decided to find some good circular needles next time I went into the city since Slave Lake doesn't have much to offer in the way of knitting supplies. For the next three weeks I was left without a single knitting project to work on, and having nothing to fuel the addiction I'm pretty sure that I went into withdrawal.
Finally, I arrived in Calgary and got what I needed. The sweater is taking shape at last, much to my delight. Except now I'm faced witn another problem: an excess of yarn. While the pattern required two skeins, after all the gauge swatches and snarled attempts I thought it prudent to get one extra skein, just in case. I needn't had bothered. Here I am, with the first sleeve and upper body complete all made from the first skein, but with lots more of the skein left! I'll have enouth for the other sleeve at least. I'll have to wait and see just how much I have left when I'm finished, but at the rate I'm going, I'll probably have enough to make two cardigans instead of one!
anyone fancy a handknit lilac cardigan?