October is almost over. ALREADY. Wasn't it just the first of October, like yesterday? I'm feeling a little bit of Christmas panic set in. The next two months are always very busy for me. In November there is of course Thanksgiving, and also our annual fall church retreat. In December there is my company Christmas party, our church Christmas musical (I am part of the church choir) along with all its prep and rehearsals, and of course, Christmas itself, to include preChristmas activites with local friends since I am out of town for Actual Christmas, and then travelling to my parents' for Actual Christmas. Time to really sit down and figure out how I'm going to tackle the Christmas gifts this year. Usually I try not to do too much knitting, because it's too easy to get overwhelmed and because the range of knit-appreciating folks in my life is actually rather limited.
I have a little bit of a head start this year as I have two Christmas presents finished already, so that makes me feel good. I'm thinking I need to make a pair of socks and a pair of handwarmers also.
Part of the problem is also that I am a selfish knitter. I love to keep the things I make. The bluebird shawl is an example - I'm not sure it's a great color for me, and I know someone who it would be perfect for, but I just don't know if I can give it up. Now, there are times when I see a pattern I think someone would love, that would be absolutely perfect for them, and I just can't stand to NOT knit it and give it to them. But otherwise...HANDS OFF. IT'S ALL MINE.
This makes me a little sad and annoyed with myself since I often wish I could give someone a shawl when they are going through a rough time. And in fact there have been times where somebody asked me to contribute knitwear to a charity or something and they make the request in a way that shows they think I just have spare knitwear lying around - like, I make socks and stick them in a pile somewhere instead of wearing them or giving them away. It's a little perplexing to me. But I don't work that way, all of my knitwear is knit with intent, either to keep or to give to someone in particular. It's true that I'm a process knitter and I really like just the act of making things, but knitting something for no reason at all seems kind of odd to me. Anyway, this makes it hard to keep up, since by the time I finish making a shawl for someone the event which inspired me to make it has usually passed on.
Anyway, I digress. I can tell you one thing I am not going to give away, though. Romi's 4th shawl from the 7 Small Shawls E-book finally has a name, and it's out at the test knitters now. When I heard that I figured I better get a hustle on to get ready. I had planned to use some stash but I didn't have anything with the yardage required for this shawl. The designated yarn, Serenity Silk, has 500 yards to a skein, and I didn't have anything close. Now, I could have used a smaller skein, but I decided I would rather not. I don't want to have to stress about whether I have enough yarn and I don't want to make the shawl less than it was intended to be by having to bind off early or make a smaller one, so I just ponied up for the recommended yarn. Such a shame, having to buy yarn. I'm so heartbroken. I also ordered a couple of bead options, but I didn't want to go overboard and order a bunch of different kinds without having even seen the yarn in person. It turns out that I did well, I ordered two varieties and decided one of them was perfect. As it happens, they are the same beads that Romi used in her sample, silver-lined root beer.
This makes me happy since I wanted to stay in the same color family as Romi's shawl, but I wanted something darker and--well, less yellow. I'm not a yellow person. I got Mocchacino instead, which is a nice warm amber brown that I think will be very wearable.
I'm all set!
You know what's not getting any love? My poor Simone sweater.
There she is, just as I left her weeks ago. I finished the increases and I need to take some quiet time and go through the directions to divide the sleeves from the body. It won't be tonight, though, since I have to deliver these:
These are the washcloths I've been knitting all summer for the SERVE family shelter. One of my church ladies had invited me to this prayer shawl group that was knitting washcloths for their summer project, and though we haven't managed to go since the first meeting, I've still been working on my washcloths. This photo is pre-washing, and I have to say I got a lovely surprise when I washed them. These floppy washcloths shrank up and became firm and bouncy, and I was so delighted with the stack that I considered pretending that I never knew about the washcloth knitting so that I could keep them and use them for a squishy pillow at night. The unfortunate side of the shrinking is that they are not really square anymore, they're more rectangular, but now that I know, I'll know to make the next set a little longer. These are perfect hockey/movie theater knitting and now that I know how much fun they are post-washing, I might just have to make some for me. I certainly have quite a few balls of yarn left. I'm also not sure these are all that I had, though, because I really am sure I knit at least one red washcloth that's not in this stack. I checked the little basket that I keep my finished charity projects in rather thoroughly, though, so I'm not sure where that cloth ended up. I'll have to go through my knitting bags and see if I left one somewhere. I'm also reasonably sure I knit more than one out of the solid green and solid blue, but I'm really not sure. I didn't really keep track.
Oh, and did I mention, since I was ordering from ZYG anyway - I might have picked up an extra skein of sock yarn. Serenity 20, to be exact. 20% cashmere, yum. We all know I am a sucker for the 80/10/10 wool/cashmere/nylon blends, so a 70/20/10 blend? YES PLEASE. This is the Emerald Ice colorway.
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