Variety is the Spice of Knitting

I have been working on many different things the past couple weeks.  Like this skirt.

And this aphgan

And this scarf.  (for those with good memories, yes, this is the second Gryffindor scarf.  I have two boys, and once one had one for last year's Halloween costume, of course, the other wanted one too.) 

Of course, there is a complicated sock in progress,

and a simpler sock,

And I am trying colorwork for the first time, so pillow in progress. 

The hunting mittens are nearly finished, except. . . .can you see the error?

 What about now?  Look closely at the finger flap. . . .One exposes the knit side, and the other exposes the purl side.  Ooops.  The current plan is to knit a mirror image twin pair, then let my sweetie choose which design he wants, then give the other to a soldier to be named later. 

What I haven't been working on is the shawl.  I know, I am down to casting off a coupel thousand stitches, and yet, I have been strangely avoiding it.  I just can't bear to finish those last few stitches, and I use the word "few" in relative terms. 

The weather is started to be cool at night and in the morning.  In short, it is perfect shawl weather.  And yet, my 99.5% finished shawl has been sitting crumpled on my nightstand untouched for the past two weeks, feeling like a neglected housewife.  If I don't finish it soon, it will sue me for divorce. 

Today, it is all about the avoidance. 

Looming deadlines

For a knitter that doesn't usually have knitting deadlines, I have had a lot of them lately. The Duchess Shawl fell short. And yet, I immediately jumped into another one with the Hunting Convertible mittens. Then, just for giggles, I threw in another one in the middle of things.

I decided that Bugaboo would make a perfect Harry Potter for Halloween, and you can't have that without a Gyffindor scarf, of course. At least I was smart enough not to do it in fingering.

I was sewing the cloak and finishing the fringe on the night before, but I got it done in time.

So now I am back to the Hunting mittens. I have just started on the thumb increases

Today, it is all about the deadlines.

Knitting Promiscuity

It took about a week to sink in: I can knit on other things besides the Duchess shawl. No longer bound by either the Knit-along deadline, or the weather (it is shawl weather now, and won't be again til spring), I can work on the shawl at my leisure.

I never have been one to stick to one project. I have knitting moods, and like to have many projects in progress, even similar ones. It takes longer to complete any one project, but it keeps all of them fresh. And if one is getting stale, a break is just the ticket for me to forget about it for a while, then fall in love again.

Besides, there is another deadline looming. Hunting season is fast approaching. (Actually, bow season started Saturday, but my sweetie hasn't practiced with his bow enough to try that, so he won't be getting out until shotgun season starts in another month.) It would be nice if I finished his mittens in time. Plus, worsted wool has immediate gratification.

Unless you decide to knit it more than once. Knitting the something, frogging it, then knitting again reallu cuts down on the "instant"part.

I am making mittens that have a fold-over flap to convert to fingerless mittens. Ive heard them called convertable mittens, or glittens, or glomitts. Anyway, I finished the first one, except for the flap. Then I decided to do the second one, up to that point, before proceeding.

And now I have two slightly different mittens. I am not sure if I screwed up on the first or the second, but they are not alike. Minor difference in the increasing of the thumb, which results in a half inch difference on how high up the wrist the mitten goes. My Mom pointed out that it was not a significant difference, that it would not be immediatly noticeable to others, and it did not hinder the mittens warmth or usefullness. So, no big deal, do the flaps and be done.

Except. . . . I don't want my sweetie to think that I did these half-assed. (I have also noticed that my guage on the wrist ribbing appears to be a little different. I don't know if I used the wrong needle size, or it was just the months difference between the two cuffs.)

So, my new plan is to frog the mittens, both of them, and re-start doing two mittens on two circulars. At least whatever mistakes I made will be made on both of them and considered a creative enhancment.

Great plan, except that I am now restarting from two needles and two balls of yarn. I hate re-working.

Today, it is all about the full ass.