WIP Insanity

Visited my parents last night - they're just back from a much-needed vacation down south. During this vacation, my mom crocheted DD a really sweet hooded coat - it's long and flares really nicely from chest to hem. Mom made me the same coat when I was little, except that for DD's version, she sewed on buttons that look like buses. Red buses, no less. (DD loves buses. And cars. And trains. And planes. And, well, vehicles of all kinds, really.) We put the coat on her and plunked her in front of a mirror and she loved it.

Anyway, one of the things my mom brought back from some friends they visited was some fun fur yarn - black, two skeins. I can't imagine when the heck I'm going to use it, but hey, stash is stash and maybe I can use it as an accent yarn for a gift scarf or something. I'm not a fan of novelty yarns, but I have seen the occasional tasteful pattern which uses them, so I'm not giving up on the stuff just yet.

Yesterday I discovered the Elsebeth Lavold site, with screen shots of the photographs from her "Designers Series" books. Oh. My. Gawd. I mean, I knew I really liked her stuff - I have the first book in the Designers Series, as well as her Viking Knits collection, but the other stuff that I haven't seen before - wow. I'm starting to get kind of depressed about my own aspirations towards designing. They really don't hold a candle to a lot of Lavold's stuff. Maybe I should give my confidence in my designing a boost and stop looking at Lavold and Starmore, eh?

Lastly, before I give the usual run-down of progress on my projects, I want to promise that photos really are coming. Unfortunately I do not yet own a digital camera, so I'm limited to scanning already-developed photos - and, as you can tell from the total lack of pictures on this blog, I haven't even started doing that yet. But it is coming. Really.

Catherine Parr sweater for MIL

Sleeves proceed. I'm now on the main pattern and increases have started.

Stornaway sweater for BIL (cream)

Haven't had a lot of time to work on this since my last entry. See, I don't think I've mentioned yet that the yarn I'm using is on an 8lb cone, which means it's extremely non-transportable, so I can only work on the thing at home. And since I spent the evening at my parents, the only time I've had to work on it since the last journal entry is this morning. At the moment I'm working on picking up stitches around the armscye.