Inching Along

I’ve been really enjoying having six projects on the go. Because of various obligations, it’s something I haven’t been able to do for a long time and it’s fun to see how things shake out.

First, the Sweater in Fifteen Minutes a Day is back on schedule and proceeding a row at a time. At my current pace, I might be able to wear it in June. Whoops.

Mandel

I can’t remember if I’ve talked about the specifics before – the pattern is Mandel, a saddle-shoulder, top-down, seamless sweater by Anke, a German designer. It’s a fairly simple design, with some waist shaping and ‘pleats’ at the sides (indicated by the red arrows) and shoulders (difficult to see). There are pleats in the sleeves as well, but we’ll see. I’m always caught between following the designer’s whims and my own. It fits quite well from what I can tell and it looks good, so for the moment I’m following the pattern as written.

Wolf Mittens

They’re done! No, that’s a lie. That’s one mitten – the left picture is it blue side out, as I knitted it. The right picture is the mitten turned to the white side. I’m debating with myself about knitting the second mitten because I know now that I will never wear these. For starters, the yarn is Malabrigo Sock and MadTosh Tosh Sock. So, expensive and 100% Merino. Lovely for hats, liable to felt and pill the first time I touch a steering wheel. So I’m thinking these might just be show mittens. Of course, do I need two mittens in that case? Decisions, decisions.

Noro Scarf

The Noro scarf grows thin and thick, thanks to the yarn. This has become my drunk knitting, for work parties. Progress is made quickly and it’s hard to screw up.

The beginnings of the doll shown in my last WIP round-up post has continued as well – it’s down to the waist at this point. The shawl and the sock are generally ignored at this point, the shawl because it requires my complete attention, the sock because it is boring. However, their stars might be on the rise – the sock is the only suitable think I have for bus/train knitting at the moment and the shawl makes good plane knitting. And I do leave for Tokyo on Saturday…

 

 

Knitting Spree

I kind of lost my mind last night. It was somewhere around the 30th time I had passed the marker indicating the edge of the sweater without so much as a decrease or a color change.

I went and cast on two new projects, along with digging up all of the WIPs.

Oh dear.

From left to right, top to bottom: The Noro Striped Scarf some people might remember from my post back in December, a slouchy hat using Rowan Lima,* the wolf mitten from the same post as the scarf, half a sock foot, most of a striped shawl, the beginnings of a doll, and, of course, The Sweater. Which is up to 19 hours and 15 minutes, by the way.

I’m hoping to turn all of these into a parade of finished objects by June, as mad as that sounds.

 

*This kind of kicked off the spree – started the hat, noticed it was the same color as the sweater, went yarn hunting, found a couple of WIPs and the doll yarn.

Getting There

Sorry about the late post. My mild cold from Monday turned into full-on, ‘oh please, just let me die’ illness Tuesday morning. I almost fainted in front of the fifth graders, which would have been a blessing. This year’s batch are a tough crowd, due in part to a teacher who gave up the reins until a little too late in the year. I don’t know whether to be hopeful about their sixth grade year, but eventually they’ll be in junior high school, with multiple teachers to tag-team discipline.

Anyway, lots of time this week, little motivation to do anything besides sit at my desk in a vaguely upright position.

I got back on schedule with the blanket last weekend and hit a major deadline by doing a few mores squares after work in between blowing my nose. The blanket is now 75% complete:

Blankie

I am five squares into the 31st row, out of 39. There will be eight blue rows total, then five purple rows. On the upper right, you can just see where I’ve started the i-cord edging.

Somebody asked about the sweater. It’s still MIA, until the blanket is more firmly on track for completion by March 31st.

Blue

Blue

As you can see, I’ve finished the green section and the first few blue squares are making their appearance. Hard to believe, but the blanket’s two-thirds done already. Just another 13 rows to go (8 of blue, 5 of purple).

…

Sweater? What sweater?

Double Update

Both projects continue steadily. I’m headed home to America tomorrow, just for a week. (Though because of how international travel works, I only spend three days at home)

Here’s what another hour and forty-five minutes added to the sweater:

Creeping along…

What you can see here are both saddle shoulders and the back of the neck. The open space is the v-neck that I foolishly hoped to have joined in the round by now. Alas.

The blanket has entered its green period.

Also creeping along.

I’m hoping that I’ll be able to churn out Friday’s regular blog post this afternoon, but I’m not super optimistic. I leave on my trip tomorrow and I keep thinking about how lucky I am to have a seven hour layover in San Francisco International Airport. I don’t suppose anyone knows if you can get a hot fudge sundae at SFO? My first hot fudge sundae in six months would go a long way towards distracting me.