Home Stretch

I actually really thought I might finish Scheherazade this weekend...but I was clearly a little deluded. However, I am on Chart 6, so the end is in sight! I've enjoyed this project but I think my neurotic little mind got a little obsessed with being able to put a mental check beside each chart. I love checking things off lists. Chart 1 - check. Chart 2 - check. CHECK CHECK CHECK I LOVE THE CHECK. I also have to admit that the size of the thing is starting to interfere with my enjoyment. I hope it comes out looking nice once it is washed and blocked...it's a little underwhelming at the moment. I know, I know, blocking is magic, etc. I'm also worried about stuff getting on it. Mostly dog fur. Ella has given me a heart attack several times by spontaneously walking across my lap and getting tangled in either the project or the yarn. NONONO DOG CLAWS PLUS KNITTED LACE IS BAD BAD BAD.

Anyway. Rather than actually finishing anything, I started a swatch hat out of the Elann Incense I bought to check out the yarn as a possibility for Eris. I started this hat twice since I somehow managed to twist my stitches when I joined. I admit to being very careless with it - it's just a swatch shaped like a rolled-brim hat. I'm enjoying the yarn, though, so this may in fact be what I decide to make my sweater out of, if they ever get it in the color I want. I'm thinking one of the tans or the mineral green. I really like the Cypress but I think it's too dark. If anyone's used this yarn before (and if anyone actually reads this blog, heh) then please let me know what you thought.

I have made a rule for myself that I am allowed to work obsessively on Scheherazade as long as once I finish it, I don't start anything else until I finish my soldier sock toe and turn the heel on my other sock - the pair I started on the way to MD Sheep and Wool.

After that, my head spins with the possiblities. I really want to start something with the Jojoland stuff I bought recently, so Elm Row is definitely on the short list for things I want to start. I have more yarn for another (hopefully smaller) pair of soldier socks. I have the Caledonian Mist socks from Pink Lemon that I have really been wanting to do, although I am still scared of my yarn choice. I'm waiting for a KnitPicks order to arrive with some size 1 sock needles in it, because I have decided that the socks I get with size 2s just are too loose on me, so I'm going to give it a go with the 1s and see how I do. I really don't think I could switch down a size on the cast-on and still be able to fit the thing around my leg.

I'm actually toying with the idea of giving dpns a try for socks...I have to admit that the two circs method does kind of irk me a little sometimes. Trouble is, I'm not sure the things that irk me would be diminished by the switch, and I am terribly afraid of dropping needles out of the sock.

Still, something to think about for the future!