Sheep On My Stuff

I have holiday projects done, but can't post them until the recipient sees them -- so not until after Dec. 25th. ^_^

I do not know how the seed stitch blanket project is going; haven't measured it lately. It is still on the needles, and I am approaching the end of The Largest Single Continuous Ball Of Yarn I Have Ever Had In The House (due to splicing from the project I unraveled to start the seed stitch blanket). It is finally cold enough I'm excited about working on it, though!

I have several (new) pairs of socks on the needles, and am thrilled about them all. :)

However, my whole world is currently being consumed by the following project. (Sorry for the horrible cell phone picture; our camera batteries are all refusing to recharge...)

Grant's birthday sweater, 2009, after one day of work.

This is what's known as "last-minute birthday insanity". My adorable Grant is more than a little hard to shop for, and I had thought I didn't have time to knit him a birthday present. But then this morning I had a flash of inspiration, figured out what I wanted to knit, and knew I had the right yarn in the house for the job. What's more, that yarn knits up at 4.5 st/1", which makes it a quick-knitting project.

I had never really thought of myself as a fast knitter, but it seems that when a deadline is looming and I have a dozen episodes of Enterprise to catch up on, I can really move. ^_^ The sweater currently has half its body (up to the armpits) and 1.25 sleeves (up to the armpits); the worrisome part is that at the armpit point, I will be about halfway done. I still think I can do it, but a.) not secretly (which would require me to stop knitting when Grant is home), and b.) I won't be able to have it washed and blocked by the actual birthday, which is unfortunate, because it will definitely require both (the yarn is not quite colorfast).

On the other hand, he seems quite enthusiastic about it, and the cable on the sleeves is the only complicated thing about it; the rest is so easy I can do it while reading. (I've been reading the World of Warcraft comic -- I didn't realize the Varian Wrynn storyline was written by Walter Simonson. o_O And I've been reading Rise of the Lich King by Christie Golden and only haven't been throwing it across the room repeatedly because it's on my Kindle, which wouldn't tolerate such treatment.) I'll still take good-luck wishes, though. XD

Okay, this isn't going to be the most interesting post, but last time I said I'd aim for 20" by this time this week, and...

Seed Stitch Blanket progress

The blanket is actually quite wide -- wide enough to cover a queen-sized bed. The real question is... how long is it going to be?

Bam! (said the lady). Not just 20", but 24"!

I made it to 24", and I've still got a TON of yarn left. Maybe next week I'll be up to 36" of blanket!

I'm also seriously considering moving my destashing criteria from weight to yardage. That's going to be a little harder to count, but I think it'd be worth it in order to make me stop avoiding socks and shawls (which I love, but which don't weigh much).

I have a fingering-weight scarf on the needles, but no pictures of that just yet! I've ripped it out and restarted it several times, but I think I'm finally happy with the (tubular) cast-on...

I don't know what happened. One minute I was going along just fine, blogging twice a week, and the next... poof. Nothing. And for months and months I just kept writing nothing. I was still knitting... but maybe not as much.

So in the interests of actually getting more knitting done (I'm never going to knit down my stash at this rate), I'm going to see if I can get back to at least once a week, checking in and giving an update on what I've been knitting!

Lately it's been a grey and white bulky-weight seed-stitch blanket. No pattern, just miles and miles of seed stitch. This is actually what I'm in the mood for right now. Something easy, simple, soothing, something that can be done while I read, write, edit, watch TV, or in downtime during my raid.

Seed stitch blanket, 11/06/2009

I have started and restarted and restarted this blanket over and over and over. It has been many things. This is what I've liked best, and more importantly, what I've liked knitting the best. It's now 14.5" of seed stitch. I'd like it to be at least 20" by the next time I check in; wish me luck!