Sweater Frustration and Snow

It's snowing.  It snowed all day yesterday and so far has been snowing all day today.  It's a pretty light  snowfall.  We're expecting 4-8" today.

No, it's not the green sweater that's frustrating- it's my pinky-red sweater that I'm just starting.  I ordered seven very pretty skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn in "Bold Red".  First of all, the nomiker "bold red" conjures images of a deep, robust blue-ish tinged red, right?  Well, when the yarn arrived in the mail it was more of a pinky-red.  I've made peace with that and I've come to like the color.  Secondly, the sweater I'm going to knit with this yarn is knit at 25 sts per four inches.  Enter swatching hell.  Swatching involves knitting the yarn with different size needles to determine what size you need to use to get the same gauge that the designer used (so your sweater does not end up five times bigger than you wanted).  First, I knit a small square with size 3 needles.  Then size 4.  Then size 1.  Then size 3 again (oops).  Then size 2.  Then I realized that I don't own the needle size that should give me the correct gauge (size 2, but the European size 2= 3.0 mm, not the American size 2= 2.75).  So now I'm waiting for the needles to arrive in the mail.  Ugh.

In the end, the yarn will become this sweater- the Mountain View Cardigan by Connie Chang Chinchio.  The sweater has some ribbing around the waist to add some nice shape to it!