State of wips

Obligatory knitting with a capital “O.” The selfish knit-whatever-I-feel-like season is long over, and I am neck deep in due dates and gift planning. The good news is, knitting is still fun, whether I’m knitting whatever I please or knitting whichever article is due next. The bad news is, the mental list of “to-knit” is growing exponentially while I plod away on the current stuff. That’s only bad because it’s distracting…maybe I’ll just swing by the LYS and pick up the yarn for that imaginary project I’ll have time to knit…you know…later.

I finished up some things, including the color work mitts (yay!), a handspun hat, and my latest, some scrappy koozies (sp?) for a celebratory six pack of glass bottled beverage I intend to travel with shortly. I’m 2 shy of the full pack, but I have a little time to round that out before I pack up to leave. Here’s a teaser from the pre-blocked mittens (post-blocking photos were awful) and the first two koozies. Hopefully I can get a decent group photo before I gift them away.

Mitten: completion!

Next up is the Cepa stole I’ve started, twice now, for a friend’s baby. It’s magnificently charming, and despite how I feel about the colors (read: eh), it’s turning out pretty nice. I don’t much care for asymmetric zig-zag ends of other chevron patterns, which makes this pattern a fabulous alternative, and the mix of garter and stockinette is making the edges look really nice (and flat!). I also like how the increase and decrease instructions generate a pretty similar single column of stockinette. It helps to pull it together. This project would be an A+ if not for one rather aggravating fact. I, knitter-in-the-round extraordinaire (I jest), have lost the ability to tension my purl. I’m positive I could knit stockinette before I became a rabid sock knitter! My purls have significantly looser tension, no matter what I try. It also happened on my first cardigan this summer. I’m rowing out and it angers me. Argh!

Cepa in all it’s rowing-out glory

Finally, I dropped off my state fair items yesterday. After making (and keeping) it a new year’s resolution last year, I wasn’t feeling too obligated to enter this time around. It was a bit of a hassle to drop off and pick up, and the feedback was pretty minimal. Of course I had no idea how many hundreds of items would be entered…a fact which fully explains all of the above. I made a game-time decision to enter as I was drifting off to sleep Sunday night, steam-blocked Monday morning, and dropped six entries off after work. I entered what now strikes me as a pathetic skein of wool/silk yarn, as well as all the handspun items I had in my pile of “to-gift,” my tubularity, and those silly color work mittens. Here’s a parting shot before I drove to the fairgrounds. I should note: I don’t intend to win a thing (there are some seriously amazing knitters in this state, and this was a last-minute “shucks”), but it’s super fun to go to the fair and treasure hunt creative activities for your items.

Steam blocking before sunrise

Taken from my car before dropping off my knits at the state fair!

More knitting to come. I’m also anxious to return to spinning…when some of this baby-blanketage, commissioned mitts, hat, and Christmas things get a little more under control. Whew!