In any case, even though I haven't been posting regular knitting updates I have been getting a fair amount of knitting done, since I have a pretty long commute and am in a carpool, which gives me lots of good knitting time. So here is a roundup of my knitting projects from the past couple months (for more details like specific yarns used etc, all of these are up on my ravelry account):
I finished Lawson's 2011 birthday socks, last mentioned here (I forget exactly when - definitely late but I think within a month of his actual birthday, so good enough). I really enjoyed knitting those quick sport weight socks for him, so I promptly cast on a pair for myself using yarn which I had bought in Maine. They really are so fast to knit, very fun!
I love knitting myself socks and was tempted to cast on another pair after I finished those, but I decided that I should turn my attention to some holiday presents. I had made a number of cotton/linen knitted washcloths as gifts a few years ago and had a request for some more this year. I knit the peach one below in a feather and fan pattern, and then knit the two grey ones below in a waffle pattern and a garter stripe pattern respectively.
I think that is it for knitted holiday gifts on my plate (although I may think of more), so I have turned my attention to making myself some new winter scarves and hats. Most of our stuff is still in storage and while I have a hat and scarf that are not in storage, they aren't my favorites, so it seemed like a good chance to knit up some nice new ones. Plus I actually don't love any of the scarves that I have now, even the ones that are packed up. To start, I am knitting this fun lace scarf with a leafy motif, one of my favorite design elements. I have actually made a lot more progress since I took these photos a number of days ago, so I am probably halfway done - I'm using knitpicks gloss fingering weight yarn and I just love it - it is so soft and squisy, but not pilly so far.
I have knitted a number of projects with lace designs, but this is the first time that I have really figured out how to read a chart and relied on that while knitting rather than written instructions. I think that partially this is because the design is less repetitive/intuitive to me, so I haven't memorized it and really do have to look at the chart as I go.
I also made a center pull ball for the first time, which worked very well. I just wrapped the ball pretty much as I normally would, but was carefully not to wrap it too tightly at first and was also careful to leave the end hanging out the whole time. I was going to link to a tutorial showing how to do this but all the ones I found involve either wrapping it around a paper tube to start, or your thumb! So I guess I made up my own way without realizing it... it worked fine but one of the other methods might be more foolproof. I especially like that now I don't have to worry so much that my yarn will roll all over the place if I accidentally drop the ball. I actually dropped my ball of yarn at a movie theater once and it rolled down quite a few rows, then I had to go and retrieve it after the movie ended... and I tried not to think about what is on the floors of movie theaters where it had been rolling around, yuck.
