WIP-Down

It's just over a week until Halloween and I still have only half of a Halloween scarf. The Accidental Sweater has half a body now, and it's going to go hang out on the bookshelf for a few days while I finish the scarf and the other stuff I needed to get done this month.

So, as much as I hate feeling like I need to WIP-Down (although even with all these finished I'll still have almost 20 WIPs stashed around the place, so "down" is a relative term here), here's my plan:

1. The Halloween Scarf needs to be done by Halloween. Full stop.

2. That Top Sekrit garter stitch thing I was making for my friend? It needs seams and a blocking and to go in the mail. Bad Kat. Your friends deserve better than this.

3. My friend's hat and gloves. Those need to get finished, blocked, photographed, and final pattern notes written so I can put them in the mail too. Fortunately, the hat just needs crown decreases (ugh), and I already have one glove done.
 
4. Mum's sweater. It's officially getting below 40 overnight now, and this needs to be done. Unfortunately, I have a hate/hate relationship with sleeves, and that's all I have left to knit. Darn.

Maybe a bit ambitious for just a week, but I'm sure with planning, dedication, and plenty of coffee it should be doable. And once I get these things done, I get to work on sweaters for me. Yay!

In Progress

Wow, this week really seemed to fly by! I have a crazy number of WIPs right now, but most of them are pretty straightforward. First up, we have a collection update! All four hats are knit, charts are made up, written instructions are half done, and I just need to block, photograph, and finish writing the pattern text before these can get edited. I'm looking at a vague release date of sometime in August for the collection-just in time to stock up on knitted hats for fall!

I also have two cowls on the needles-both of these are "swatchples"-the one on the left is in Bijou Spun Gobi Limited and the one on the right is from my friend Tara at The Dyeing Arts. These particular skeins are from her "Goblin Dye Works" line, which means that they're one-offs. Because of that, and because the Gobi is discontinued now, I don't want to do actual pattern samples with them. But I did let myself start swatching, and it got a little out of hand. I love both of these cowls, and they're working up just as I hoped, so I have more readily available yarns on their way to work up real samples.

But Kat, that's a lot of pattern work! Aren't you doing anything relaxing? Of course I am! Mottled Daydream continues to be, duh, an absolute dream (I can't get over how floaty and gauzy this fabric is-love!). Mum's Rocky Coast is plugging along as fast as I can expect given that I've only managed to work on it two rows at a time. I'm two rows from dividing for the arms, so it should pick up then-the whole thing where you "integrate new stitches into cable pattern as they become available" has apparently been a difficult concept for me this time around, so once those pesky little raglan increases are done it should be smooth sailing. I also got pointier needles, so cabling without a cable needle has gotten 1000x easier.

I also managed to cast on a Beach House about two days after the summer issue of Holla Knits came out, and promptly stuck it in a knitting bag to pointedly ignore. I love the pattern, love the yarn, and know I'll wear it all the time, so it's going to be my reward as soon as the hat collection goes to my editor. That should hopefully kick me into gear to get the writing done!

And of course, this doesn't cover the three pairs of socks, or the three blanket projects, or anything else that I'm pointedly ignoring right now. 

Decisions, Decisions

I leave for a short business trip tomorrow (just three days-I'll be back Sunday night) and I still haven't figured out what knitting to bring!  It's hard, because I'll be working a lot, and driving for most of two days, but I still want something for the hotel room and for slow periods on Saturday.  But here are my options:

1. A baby blanket-probably not a real option.  I have the yarn for one blanket, but the stitch patterns I wanted to use don't work out the way I hoped they would, so I have to re-think the whole thing.  Plus the size factor.

2. Sockhead-potential, but it's pretty small and right now is my go-to cinema knitting, and I don't have anything else in the queue right now that can replace it once it's done, so I want to make it last as long as possible.

3: Neville-strong potential, except I'm still feeling all socked-out.  I don't even want to look at another sock right now, even if it's a sock as charming as Neville.  Plus, these have languished long enough that I'm starting to feel guilty.  I'm not quite ready to face up to my negligence and apologize to them yet.

4. Mottled Daydream-definitely a possibility, but I still haven't finished frogging it.  And I'd have to re-print the pattern and write down all my planned changes.  But it would be an excuse to start working on it again.

5. Cotton lace-weight pullover-if I was farther along in the planning process, maybe.  But I haven't even finished swatching for it, and I have no planned measurements or schematic drawn up.  So right now, that's a bit laughable.

6. Heartmate-I would, but it's more than half-complete already, and it's such a pleasure to knit that I want to stretch it out a little bit longer. 

7. Something Top Sekrit-it would be a good chance to get some Top Sekrit knitting done, especially since cell reception is spotty where I'm going.  But I don't really have something planned out enough where I can take it with me right now.  Plus I'd have to take notes, if it was a new design, which is the antithesis of portable, and most o my dedicated Top-Sekrit yarn hasn't been wound into balls yet.

8. Darjeeling-laughable.  I haven't touched these in over a year, and they're my first toe-up socks ever.  When I finally go back to these, I will be GLUED to the book.

9. Snowdrop-I know Ravelry says that this has been on the needles since 2012, and that it's 5% done, but the reality is, it's totally frogged.  I messed up, and I was only two repeats in, and I needed the needles for something else, so I just took it off and haven't restarted it yet.

Looking at all my options listed out, it seems like my best choice is probably going to be Mottled Daydream, as long as I can forget that I've already knit the whole thing once before.  But it is a fun knit, the yarn is nice, and there's only a tiny bit left to frog.  And since I've knit it once before, I know the pattern well enough to be able to pick it up and set it down as necessary.