Back!

I beg forgiveness for the long blog silence. I am, generally speaking, kind of embarassed to blog without photos, so I tend to not blog when I don't have any. But! Look what we have today!



Caledonian Mist in Handmaiden Casbah Peacock. This photo is actually a little old and out of date, as this sock is finished - but the second sock looks basically the same, so - pretend. Except the second sock is not nearly this long yet. So...I'm both behind, and ahead with this picture?

Regardless, just try to tell me that isn't stunning. It's all I can do not to go buy all the Casbah I can get my hands on.

Next up, MS4.



I am woefully behind. This is about halfway through Clue 3. I am a failure of a mystery stoler. Have a detail shot.



I admit I have been ignoring the community aspect of this project almost entirely. I haven't looked at any pictures or any discussion, so forgive me if I'm stating the obvious, but - the yarnover motifs look like campfires or burning incense to me. Interesting.

I have a condition, which may be universal or may be universal to new knitters, or it may be just me, but generally speaking, when I look at a chart full of yarnovers...that's all I see. I can't see the picture until I have actually done the knitting. Hmm, now that I look at it, the beads look like they could be pine trees. So, maybe I am right on the camping theme?

I personally hate camping, but that's okay, I think I can forgive the stole, since it is in fact really pretty. Not really sure where the mass of yarnovers that are clues 4 and 5 will go, though. But, that is the fun, isn't it?

Here's a closer look at the top:



I need to try to remember to crop my photos tighter.

The color in these photos isn't bad; I took it upstairs and photographed it without a flash by an open window, and then when I got it on the computer I adjusted it until the color of the cloth I was using for a background was close to correct. However, I am kind of thinking that if there really is a camping theme, I'd have liked to use a green yarn instead of this marine blue - but oh well, that's the Mystery, isn't it?

Anyway, I'm enjoying the project, except one problem - I've got two other lace projects of about the same level of complexity that are in process. This was a mistake. I don't really get anxiety over multiple projects if they are different types of projects, because different projects are appropriate for different kinds of knitting time. However, I do get nervous when I have multiple projects competing for the same type of knitting time. I have 3 lace projects going now that require about the same amount of attention - Moonlight Sonata, Whispering Pines, and MS4. I have worked on MS4 exclusively and I would, I think, be okay with that, except that Whispering Pines is a Christmas present and I fear that I won't finish it in time. I thought I would be okay because MS4 ends in October and then I would have all of November and most of December to do Whispering Pines, but I am starting to worry, especially since I am so far behind on MS4. I am considering two options:

1 - Work on MS4 until the knitalong is over, and then stop wherever I am on it and pick up Whispering Pines as I intended.

2 - Accept that I am not going to catch up anyway, and put down MS4 now until Whispering Pines is finished. Download and store all the clues until I am ready to pick it up again.

I'm leaning toward option 1 at this point.

I do have one other project for Christmas, a pair of fingerless mitts for a friend. I have the yarn, Little Knits Indie II in Burgandy, but I haven't started yet. In fact I don't think I have checked to see whether I have the right size needles either - note to self, do that.

I am not too worried about getting those done, but if the pattern is correct I should have enough yarn for 2 pair, and I would like to make the second for another friend.

I am resisting the urge to mentally commit to other presents, just in case. I'd like to make a pair of socks for my mom, and I'd like to make a hat for my dad, to go in their stockings (my mom stuffs the stockings so I especially like to stick a little something in for her when she is not looking), but I have not bought yarn so that I don't end up overcommitting (although I am really quite sure I could make a pair of plain socks for my mom, I mean really now, surely I can handle a pair of simple stockinette socks in two and a half months - although a lacy silky scarf would be kind of neat to put in her stocking as well and I do have a bunch of KP Gloss in the stash...).

I am totally doomed, aren't I?