Ack

So I manage to nab myself a whole bunch of new readers (including kelpkim, thanks for letting me know you're here!) and then - wham. An entire week of silence, thanks to...I'm not quite sure. A combination of laundry backlog and trying to get to bed at a decent time every night, I think. Oh, yes, and needing to get out of the house early every morning because our daycare provider has been on vacation this week and the morning routine became a bit different.

Anyway, I'm back...now with my shiny-new "Help An Old Lady Walk Across The Yarn Store" badge, according to Ella and Carrie K. ;) And I have a considerable amount of progress to report, to boot. Marina noticed that I have a lot of projects, and several of them have seen action over the past week. (You should really click on Marina's blog link, BTW...she does INCREDIBLE projects. This recent one in particular is absolutely stunning and I covet it deeply. DEEPLY. Marina, you rock.)

Garden shawl for MIL

A few entries ago, I mentioned that the edging was starting to melt my brain. At the time I was kidding, but now? Now I think I may have been onto something. The edging is actually starting to dull my enthusiasm for any kind of knitting (a sure sign that I am not in my right mind). Part of the reason I have so many projects with progress to report on today is that I have been branching out from this project in a desperate attempt to save my sanity.

That's the bad news. The good news is that I'm well into the third side and can spread the whole thing out enough so that it looks like this:

Black socks for DH's boss

I figured a good antidote to endless 14-row lace edging repeats would be...endless stocking stitch in the round. Yeah! Way to change it up!

Surprisingly, though, it does make for a bit of a nice change. Not an exciting change, of course, but nice. I finished the toe a few days ago and this morning got started on the rest of the foot. Because DH found the other socks I'd made from the same yarn perfectly snug, and because he feels his boss' foot is a bit wider than his own, I increased to 76 stitches instead of my usual 72 for a man's sock size, and will probably increase after the heel to 76 or 80 stitches. It's coming along very nicely so far.

Stornaway sweater for DH

I took a picture of this - but sadly, when I downloaded it onto my computer I realised that the camera had gone all weird and completely missed capturing the stitch definition. Since a picture of a mottled dark green blob is not very interesting, I scrapped it. Hopefully when I take pictures for my next entry the light will be sufficient enough that the camera will take a half-decent shot which will cause Carrie K to covet the sweater even more strongly. :)

In the meantime, I am extremely pleased to announce that the back of the sweater is FINISHED. A major milestone. Next up: shoulder straps. I love shoulder straps! True, they are fiddly but they are also way cool.

Taupe socks for Dad

My lace project was boring me so badly that in desperation, I decided to sit down and work out the math for how I was going to transition the leg cables into ribbing for the cuff. It turned out that my original assessment that the number of stitches wouldn't let me do it nicely was completely wrong. (Sometimes I miss the obvious.) It will, in fact, work perfectly and (hopefully) look fantastic. Now I just need to free up the sock needles to actually do it.

Fafner blanket for baby Whyte

I'm helping to plan the baby-celebrating party for my co-worker. (It is not a shower...I've had it impressed upon me by enough guys that one does not throw a 'shower' for a man. Even if it looks like a shower, sounds like a shower and acts like a shower, it is not a shower if we do not actually call it a shower. I hope we're all clear on this point.) Therefore, I know exactly when it is going to be: SOON. Like, next week. (If he reads this blog I am screwed, because it's supposed to be a surprise.) The realisation that I needed to finish this blanket immediately kinda hit me like a truck, and so I've been doing the destable tasks of sewing it together and weaving in the ends for the last few nights. I am almost done - just a few more ends to weave in, some gaps to fill in at the corners, and then a quick block to smooth it out a bit. But even now I think it looks pretty darn good:


The only problem (discovered way too late to do anything about it) is that it totally does not match with the white, red, navy and light blue 'antique sailboat' theme of the planned nursery. Oh, well.