Christmas Knitting

I don't know how but I somehow managed to get a little knitting done during Christmas week. It's unseasonably warm for New England. We have no snow. I was fine with that. I had to drive to New Jersey. A stressful journey for me living in the land of two lane highways. Three lanes and I'm highly suspicious of others and if they are really paying attention to how close they are to me or the fact that they can't stay in their own lane. Six lanes, yeah, I'm talking about you Garden State Parkway, and I'm white knuckle driving and refusing to let anyone else talk in the car until I get the heck out of the Oranges and Newark. And don't even get me started on Rte. 9....but I digress. We all made it safe and sound and all I ended up with was a stress induced sinus/cold/I-don't-feel-like-eating illness that stayed with me for four days after I got back home. Such a wimp. An adventurous highway driver I AM NOT. You want to go exploring back country roads I am your gal. No fear there. Just not much of a distance traveler. Well, if someone else is driving, that's a whole different story. I'll be the first to call shotgun and ready to go. 

 I call this my Christmas Aran. I have taken my favorite center panels from two previously constructed arans and assigned one to the front and one to the back. Why? Because I can. Just someone try to send the Knitting Police to my door. This project needs its sleeves; then it is done.

You would think I would have aranned myself out by now but I just can't get enough. Visions of cables and twists dance in my head. Unfortunately I just learned my favorite go-to wool has jumped significantly  in price and will be questioned in the budget process. *sigh*

Now that I have depressed myself I will grab the Kindle and console myself with Mr. Darcy and Lizzie. I have found Rebecca Ann Collins series of Pemberly Chronicles and though I consider myself a Jane Austen snob I have enjoyed RAC's musing of the continuing story. Not bad. 

Time Flies When You're Shoveling

Seems all I do these days is shovel. Shovel and knit. Knit and shovel. I like to knit much more than shovel but what is a New Englander to do?

My actual knitting  has slowed considerably due to adjustments needed on  recently finished objects. Hems were flipping up. Necklines curling back. Fussy stuff. All is where it should be now.

The last project I mentioned, the Vined Aran, required serious blocking. Who designed this thing? Whacking out all those cables and surrounding them with seed stitch? Cables pull in, seed stitch spreads out. It was an upper body workout on the blocking table. As soon as I get the buttons on I'll break out the camera for show and tell.

After finishing the Vined Aran I was very depressed. I knew there was nothing left in my stash. Well, until I decided to clean it out and sort yarns by weight. Let me back up. My yarn is stored in rolling plastic file bins. In the beginning they were somewhat organized. Time has changed that and they are in need of a reorg. Four of the bins are white. Off to the right I have a shorter black version. Guess what I found? More Cascade 220 just waiting to be knit in the little black bin! The day was saved and the sorting will wait until I've pillaged the black bin. By that time I will be ready to make my Scrap Sweaters. I'll have lots of little bits of this and that. For some reason I can't make myself knit scrappish versions using full banded hanks. Doesn't seem right. I know, that's silly. What are you going to do? I would like to change the description-scrap doesn't sound creative or positive. It makes me envision food scraps. Bleh. I'll work on a better description.

I"ll think about it while I'm shoveling.

70 Degrees

Me weather.

Leaves are turning. (a little early)

Pumpkins are ready. (very early)

Days are shorter.

Nights are cooler.

*sigh*

The cotton "monster" project is ready for the soaking tub. I still love the yarn though it would be hard to tell after all that fussing yesterday. I may have exaggerated just a bit on the perceived width change but the measuring tape does confirm a gauge "swatch vs. actual object" difference. Well, as I said yesterday, if a raglan style works and drop shoulder doesn't, stop creating drop shoulder designs. We all could use a little less whining in the world. And I must edit something I wrote earlier. I called the color mulberry. Actually, it's Purple Haze. What they call mulberry I call fuchsia. Potayyto, potauuuto.

If this lovely "me weather" holds out I think I will continue with my cable mode and hit the wool stash. I collected some great heather colors from the Cascade 220 line during WEBS anniversary sale. The tough decision will be which one for this project.
Another project in the works (it's marinating in a back section of my brain) is a mosaic knitting creation. I picked up Barbara Walker's book on mosaic knitting and though I'm very comfortable doing stranded knitting this looks like a lot of fun.
I'm going to take a walk to the library and enjoy the rest of my day. Wish you all the same.