Checking In

With the calendar quietly shifting into March, I am a little more hopeful that Spring is on its way.  In fact, today is the first day since, oh, September, that I have my windows open, because the temperate is currently 33 degrees Fahrenheit.  You may notice that this number is above freezing, and therefore warm enough to have the windows open.

Not surprisingly, I fell off of my own self-constructed bandwagon after finishing those argyle mittens and project "Free-The-Needles" is now relatively defunct.  I do still have plenty of things on the needles, though.  Shall we take a tour?

That's the beginning of the Evenstar Shawl by Susan Pandorf.  It's a mystery knit-a-long in which a new section of the pattern is published and distributed every other week so it's a fun surprise to see how the pattern develops.  That picture is clue 1 and some of clue 2 (which was published a couple of days ago.) Sign-ups are now unfortunately closed.

State of Affairs:  Don't expect to see lots of pictures of this one until it's done.  It's going to be pretty boring to look at until then (as crumpled blobs of lace tend to be).  So far this is relatively simple and I haven't had many problems, except for the fact that I had to rip out most of clue 1 and re-knit it again.  I made it simpler by just snipping the yarn and starting over.  I'm knitting this using some beautiful Natural Dye Studio Angel Lace in the Heather colorway that I got from my sister's shop.  It is a wonderful blend of alpaca, silk, and cashmere and it is a treat to knit with.  The only downside is that the natural dyes used tend to rub off on your hands.

Haruni, knit using The Pluckyknitter's Merino/Cashmere/Nylon Fingering in the "Movin' On Out" colorway.  Unfortunately it looks like her shop is empty right now.

State of Affairs:  I'm knitting a smaller size of this shawlette because I don't have the amount of yardage called for in the pattern.  It's super easy to downsize, so that wasn't an issue.  The issue right now is that I have 10 rows left, over 400 stitches per row, and it just doesn't look like I have enough yarn.  Any motivation to keep knitting on this one has sort of gone out the window...  (It's a great pattern and I love the yarn, though.)

Can you even believe that Delain (#15) is still hanging around?

State of Affairs:  I could have knit this one ten times over by now.  I don't know what's taking me so long.  The front is done, the back is done, the sleeves are done, all seams are sewn.  I need to knit pocket liners, a collar, and a neckband.  Right now I just have to decide how long I want the collar (I'm not really feeling the shawl collar anymore) and whether or not I want to add buttons to the front, which would involve knitting button holes.  Not a problem, I just need to decide whether or not I want to do it before I knit the front bands.

Cubism is relatively new on the needles, even though I told my brother a year and a half ago that I would make it for him.  I'm using Berroco Comfort in the colors of the Irish flag (per request).

State of Affairs:  I've included a pen for scale in that picture so that you can see how big the square is.  I have two of them done, which means I only need ::gulp:: 30 more!  That's a whole lot of garter stitch.  If I were knitting the original size, I would only need seven more of those little buggers, but, well, I re-charted and super-sized the blanket to make one that is going to be 7'x9'.  Aren't I the luckiest knitter in the world?

These are some nameless socks that I'm knitting.  I'm using Malabrigo Sock in the "Persia" colorway (also from my sister's shop) and this is part of a challenge that my sister and I are doing with each other in which we have to design our own sock pattern.  My inspiration was based on the colorway name and comes from this picture I found on flickr.

That's the foot charted out based on my gauge.

State of Affairs:   Hmmm...  Every time I try that toe on I feel like it's a little big, which should be telling me to stop knitting and try again.  I, being a typical knitter, continue knitting.  I think I'm going to have to rip it out though.  That means changing my stitch count and re-charting the pattern (which I have to change anyway, because I have a different idea for the top of it.)  I'll get around to that sometime.

So, I can currently knit on the shawl that turns my hands purple, the shawl that is going to run out of yarn, the sweater that has remained by my side for months, the blanket that may be the end of me, or the socks that are too big.  I wonder why I don't have much of an urge to knit lately?