With thanks to Ms Zimmermann...

See this smile on my face?
See this grin that's so incredibly large it almost cuts my head in two?

Well, okay, no you can't, but if you could you'd see that I've been so deliriously happy today because, just two weeks on from launching my 'knit anything stash attack', I've completed Ben's stripey pullover, with ne'er a pattern in sight - all thanks to Elizabeth Zimmermann's percentage system (handily summed-up in this Knitting By Numbers article from Knitty.com).

To the more seasoned knitter among you this stripey stocking-stitch jumper, knitted in-the-round, is a bit run of the mill, ergo - no major feat. But, like I said, its the first time I've used the percentage system (love it) and I'm over the moon that:

1) I managed to knit something despite my 'two under two' devouring every morsel of my knitting time; and

2) I used up seven balls of stash (Patons Fireside) which was actually on its way to the op shop, as I'd bought it to make a baby blanket which I never quite managed to complete. (Or start, actually).

The only duffer side to this celebration is the fact that today was about 25 degrees C, so I could only force Ben to run around in it at dawn, in the wee hours of the morning. (Spring has obviously arrived with gusto, so he will probably never wear this completely-wintery pullover again. Ever.)

Yet not even this can bring me down. This sweater symbolises a lot to me. Its completion represents the closing of a chapter. We've turned a corner: Lachie is well and settled (at last), we're sleeping (not a lot, but we're sleeping) and Spring has sprung ...

Onwards, my friends, onwards ...