What happened?

I am ready to turn the heel on the second starry night sock. I'm...not sure how that happened. I haven't been knitting nearly long enough to be at the heel. Huh?

In attempting to puzzle it out I have come up with the following possible explanations:

--Anything seems to go quickly after you have knit 12" of plain 2x2 rib in black fingering yarn.
--It has been kind of a long time since I knit the first one and I am a faster, better knitter now.
--I have been knitting on it longer than I think I have, but it doesn't seem as long because I have had other projects.
--I have knit on it in larger intervals than I did the first time, so even though I have knit just as many hours, it doesn't seem as long because there was less stopping and starting.

The last one seems least plausible, honestly. I'm hoping for number 2.

Also, the socks really aren't long enough. I don't know whether it is impatience or what but I have yet to knit what I would consider a 'full length' sock (other than the above-mentioned SFS sock). Both pairs I have made for myself are short. Now that I have experienced the socks sliding off my feet do to the shortness, I will be knitting longer socks. I may also adjust my cast-on down to the next smaller size, but I'm not sure whether that is a good idea or not.

Next up on the sock knitting path - I haven't decided. I have a skein of hand maiden casbah in peacock that I want to use to make Pink Lemon Twist's Caledonian Mist pattern, but I also have another couple of skeins of Lorna's Laces in the Snowscapes colorway from Yarn Market, and I am thinking about making just a plain pair of stockinette socks from them. I am aware that the colors may pool without a pattern to break them up, but I don't really care. The idea of simple stockinette simplicity is very appealing.

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.

Temptation

The baby is a girl...I should have waited just one more week! That's okay - I still like the pretty natural colors I have. However, I found that out just as Knit Picks posted their new Felici colors and I had a momentary war to keep myself from buying yarn for a Baby Surprise jacket. I really like both Mixed Berries and Dakota. I convinced myself to wait until I have the blanket knit. If I still feel the urge then, maybe I will go for it.

I really need to cut back on the yarn buying though...it is too easy to really get in deep no matter how cheap you are buying and I have more than enough to keep me knitting for a while. I must be strong!!

It is not easy though. Not easy at all.

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.