So awesome

Remember this?



Now it looks like this:









Knitting is the coolest thing ever. This is my first completed shawl, the Bigfoot Shawl from wrapped in comfort. I finished it just in time to give it to the recipient on Easter, even though her mission trip was long over. I'm glad I did it anyway.

Now I have started on the Organic Baby Wrapper and Hat set. I actually have finished the hat except for the crochet border (I didn't have the right size hook). I am 4 repeats into the blanket. I added another repeat on the width and I plan to add a couple to the length as well, because my swatch shrank in both directions when washed and dried. I don't want to put a blanket in the wash and then pull out a washcloth!! I am a little concerned about the hat - I compensated for the shrinkage in length but I didn't change the width, so...we'll see how it comes out. I'm a little nervous on that one. I am trying to tell myself that it won't shrink as much in the width because the pattern stitch will not act the way stockinnette did. I feel kind of stupid for not knitting any pattern repeats into my swatch, but the guage is given in stockinnette, so that's what I did! I am still new at this. Next time I will be somewhat less impatient, and I will knit two swatches. But, honestly, it's a baby hat. It's not much bigger than a generous swatch anyway. I have decided not to worry about it. It took me two evenings to do - I can always have a do-over. Although, I probably should weigh it and see how much yarn it took before I do that. I do still have to do the contrasting stripes in the wrapper.

Anyway. I'm still at 4 total active projects, now, with the two pairs of socks, the laceweight shawl I haven't touched since I broke my needle, and the baby wrapper.

Plus, you know, the hibernating stuff - the witterings hat and the waffle scarf and the garter stitch shawl of just-kill-me-now. Although, honestly, I have probably imporved at knitting enough since I started knit that shawl that I might could motor through the rest of it if I just put my mind to it. I am certainly educated enough now to say that I should have used much larger needles. Le sigh...

I suppose I could always felt the thing into a placemat or something. Mwa ha.

Finishings

I managed to get 2 things off my progress in process list this weekend:

1) Shedir


Look very pretty...but it is very big. The brim comes down over my eyes. I'm not sure what I am going to do with it yet.

2) Snug Harbor



It has become Lulu's bed when she sleeps on the bed. She also slept in it on the floor for a little while on Saturday, but there are many cushier beds around the house. I had planned to knit the bottom with both colors held double, but I miscalculated (rather spectacularly) where the bottom actually started so...yeah.

But they're done! This means I have 4 active WIPs (and two hibernating ones, but we will not discuss this). One is the beginner's triangle, one is the Bigfoot Shawl, one is the starry night socks, and the last is the BBS.

Yesterday I worked on the shawl some, even though I really should have finished the toes on the first BBS so that I could get started on the second. The pups and I are house-and-dog-sitting for a friend this week so there will be lots of knitting time (I hope).

I also selected, ordered, and received this in the past week:



Elann.com Pakucho Organic Cotton in Natural and I think Cafe (I can't remember off the top of my head). This is for an Organic Baby Wrapper for a friend who is having a baby in August. We don't know the sex of the baby yet and I didn't want to wait, so I just went with neutrals. The dark will be the main color and the light will make the contrast and, hopefully, the hat.

Startitis?

Is that what this is? It doesn't feel like startitis. Perhaps that is because you only feel startitis when you fight it? Since I have given in to every whim, I have not noticed?

Hm. Anyway, I kind of feel like I have an awful lot OTN.

--Shedir
--Big Black Socks of neverending doom
--Bigfoot missionary shawl (the missionary I was planning to give it to? back already. dangit)
--Snug Harbor
--Starry Night Socks

I also started a scarf for a friend but I don't like the way it is coming out so I plan to rip it back, and therefore I do not count it in this list. Those are just the active projects. The "hibernating" projects, to borrow a ravelry term, are:
--Witterings hat
--garter stitch shawl
--chocolate waffle scarf

The last is so mind-numbingly dull that I only work on it when I don't have anything else at the "relatively thoughtless" stage. It's been getting a lot of play since out of the projects listed in the first list above, the only one that I really had at a thoughtless stage was the snug harbor one and that one is really too large to be as portable as I would like.

Last night I solved this problem by inserting a dental floss lifeline and ripping back part of the BBS. I misunderstood something in the pattern and knit about an inch and a half past where I was supposed to on the foot. So last night I fixed that, and now that sock only needs a toe and then I can cast on for the second one, which will have 12 utterly mindless inches of ribbing before I have to think again. I hope to finish the toe tonight.

But, I didn't do that until after choir practice last night, and since I really needed something to work on that wasn't the chocolate waffle scarf (please not the chocolate waffle scarf), I cast on the second starry night sock. This turned out to be perfect because I got almost exactly the right amount of ribbing done at the top of the sock, so now I am set to start the patterned section whenever I am ready.

I start to get fidgety when I have too many things going on, like I have some sort of guilt complex or whatever, so I'd really like to finish off some of these projects. Shedir is about a good day's work away from completion (and I am really concerned that it is way, way too big). I have a long way to go yet on the missionary shawl. I may try to put in the time tonight on the Snug Harbor, which really should be the fastest of all of these to finish, I would think. I am thinking I will try to finish the first BBS and the Snug Harbor by the weekend, and then spend Sunday afternoon finishing Shedir. Saturday we're having a board game party, so I will need something simple to do on that day - which will be perfect for the second BBS! I'll still have a lot on the needles, but at least I will feel like I have made progress, which has been a sensation severely lacking in the last couple of weeks.

I am itching to start Odessa and also a baby blanket for a high school friend pregnant with her first child, but I am doing my very best to hold back until I can finish a couple of things.

Getting On

This weekend was productive despite a lot of puppy-related problems. One of my new babies was rather violently sick in the smelliest and messiest way possible on Saturday night late.

But, I did use the dental floss lifeline that someone from the SFS list suggested to me and now my BBS are back on track. It worked great and I didn't lose a single stitch.

I also worked on the Bigfoot shawl and I am approaching the halfway point - by which I mean, I am halfway out of yarn. I have a date with my ball winder this evening for the second skein.

Unfortunately, the intended recipient leaves for her missionary trip on Thursday, and there is no way I will be done in time. I'm not sure how long they will be gone - I think I week but I am not totally sure. In any case, my current plan is to finish it and give it to her when she gets back. I wanted to make one for the other lady going on the trip, but that is just not going to happen. I wouldn't have it done for any time period remotely related to their going. Not sure what to do about that at the moment.

I'm dying to see what this shawl will look like when it is blocked. I can't visualize it very well while it is on the needles since there is no real way to stretch it out and look. I could put it on scrap and look at it, but I think I would rather just wait. Why spend knitting time trying to visualize when you can just go for it?

Minimal at best

This has not been a week of getting much done. I did a little work on my chocolate waffle scarf since my socks for soldiers sock is out of commission until I rip back a bit to fix whatever I did wrong on the gussets. A helpful list member suggested that I use dental floss to pick up the stitches before ripping, which I think is genius, so I am hoping I will be able to take care of that before tomorrow's D&D session.

I am kind of having to accept that I am not going to get the Bigfoot shawl done before the ladies I wanted to give the shawls to leave for their trip. I'm on the body now but I guess I did not realize how long it takes to do a whole row when your row is a couple hundred stitches long.

Yes, I realize I may be rather slow.

The good news is that I can finally start to see the pattern a little bit. I really couldn't before now, so that is a nice little bit of progress. Even so, I am only getting at most one and a half pattern repeats done each time I sit down.

Bit by bit

A couple of updated photos of Shedir:





It's still looking kind of huge to me. I don't know. I guess I could, y'know, actually MEASURE the gauge, but not doing so makes it much easier to worry.

I am about halfway through the yoke on my bigfoot shawl (ravelry link). I include my hand (also, apparently, my lens cap) for scale. Obviously, I have a long way to go.



P.S. I would really like to know how to get my pictures to stop cutting off on one side, without making them smaller. Surely there must be somewhere I can adjust the column width on this thing?

P.P.S. I've changed my template.

So pretty.

I had mail yesterday. It looked like this.



and this.



Hand Maiden Casbah in Mineral and Earth, respectively. I was a happy camper. I started a Bigfoot shawl as soon as I could get it wound and the puppies fed.



I hope to be able to finish two shawls before my church friends leave on their missionary trip...at the end of the month. I realize this is both ambitious and unlikely, but I am going to try. I hope I will at least be able to finish one, and then have the second done when they get back.