i don’t know about anyone else, but just because i have focused my current knitting energy on the wooster shawl for olympics, i have not stopped thinking about other projects i have on the needles, in planning, or which are still but a twinkle in my eye. after all one can never be too prepared.
for instance, if you dug into my knitting bag(s) (and you had better only be doing that if you passed my “handling of yarn and projects” exam), you would almost certainly find a sock on the needles if not two different ones. for one thing, we are in need of a constant supply in this house (trust me; keep your husband in handknit socks, and he will be your love-slave). and for another, i love to test different kinds of fiber by spinning up enough for socks and making a quick pair. this has tremendously eased the tedium i used to feel at making socks with commercial yarns. using handspun has promoted the activity to a level i enjoy and look forward to. here is my current sock, in handspun romney; the fiber came packed around my used schacht wheel last year.
i’ll keep this by my desk or take it to class and bit by bit it’ll grow into a pair. and yes, i just saw the mistake in it too: i’m hoping i noticed it after the picture and ripped out, but i am running upstairs RIGHT NOW to check!!
i also have a sweater on circular needles, a lace scarf in alpaca, a child’s hat, two scarves for the shop, and probably another thing or two that are laying around languishing while i “rest” from them. they will all get done in due time; those things may sit for months and then get done with a flourish in a fit of clearing out.
but what am i thinking about for after the olympics? well, i have been on a lace kick lately, partially fueled by my students’ keen interest in knitting lace (i know; i can hardly stand how geeky they are getting to be; it makes me so proud!). and then, my friend and co-worker,
carol e, got me this for my birthday:
isn’t she just the bee’s knees?? this hank of yarn just pushed it’s way to the front of the queue the minute i received it. (i’m really sorry; i was so excited about it, i wound right up as soon as i got it home, forgetting to take the picture while it was still in the hank; it was even more beautiful that way). i had beeen hankering for this skein of yarn since the moment it came into the shop. we only got one in this color, and while most of the other skeins sold quickly, this one sat there with my NAME on it, teasing and taunting. and then one day it disappeared. “oh well,” i thought, “it wasn’t meant to be.” the hell it wasn’t! carol is my HERO!
it’s a soft blend of merino, mohair, and nylon, and it’s superwash (but not in a bad way). and did i mention, it has my NAME on it? i know carol uses it for socks, and that’s what i was thinking too (after all , she also gave me those frakking exquisite rosewood sock needles for christmas), but then i noticed that it has almost 600 yards on a skein, and i started thinking lace scarf. i have this idea that it will knit up like a winter night sky, all that rich dark blue with those little subtle streaks of gray and touches of lighter blue. i am thinking maybe a snowflake type stitch pattern might be nice, or something that makes the light bits look like stars. so now i am in love with this project and all other projects pale by comparison.
you see how this goes? it’s not all that hard to figure out how we end up with 9 or 11 different projects going at once.