out with the old, in with the new

While attempting to organize the area around my desk my knitting nest, I keep coming across nearly forgotten UFOs. Now I'm trying to finish them up a few at a time before I start new things.

One problem with waiting too long (21 months?!?) to finish a project...Abi's feet grew between my knitting the first sock (look familiar? my frogged very first sock) and the second. No worries, they're both the same (larger) size now.

Remember this sock? It's only taken me a year but it's no longer lonely. I actually just pulled these out of my sock drawer for the pic. I've worn (comfy!), washed and dried them without blocking. They look much purtier on.

Kai's sweater has two sleeves now. I still haven't decided whether I'm going to duplicate stitch his name on one of them. I had him try it on and he's still telling me it's not his sweater and he doesn't want it. Ah, well.

I still have a couple inches to knit and then the shaping on the hood (after I untangle the mess my dogs left of the yarn). I'm really glad I knit this top down. It made it much easier to fix the split stitch right in the front that I didn't notice until after I bound off. Oops.

I ended up not frogging the garterlac baby blanket. Instead, I settled on stopping at seven edge triangles. I don't know offhand what the measurements are but it looks more balanced than if I'd stopped at six. It's pretty heavy but I like it. Sadly, I think my obsession with garterlac has finally come to an end.

That's eleven point six feet of PITA (I knit, frogged, changed needle sizes over and over until I just got tired of messing with it) attached i-cord around the edges.

Now that my #8 Addis are free, I want to make a Forest Canopy Shawl with some of my handspun. I planned to start it this morning but realized I'd have to wind yarn into balls. I don't have a ball winder or swift. *pout*

Being lazy, I decided to ply two fat bobbins (pieces of dowel I rough cut, I have a design for a rough lazy kate in my head but for now, I throw the bobbins in a box on the floor so they don't roll around and trip family members passing through) of singles instead. Wow, I can't believe I got it all on the spindle!

Instead of using a few drops of dish soap in the water I used to set the spin, I added some lavender Eucalan. What a difference it made! The yarn really bloomed and softened. Even wet, I could feel how amazingly, can't-believe-I-actually-spun-it-myself, soft it was.

I had to rewash the rest of my handspun. Since today was a surprisingly beautiful day (high of 62 degrees F...probably the last we'll see of those temps for months) , I hung it from the front tree to dry.

My neighbors are laughing at me, aren't they?