Last week we flashed our UFOs.  You never know what’s going to happen at Chatters!  Drop by, it’s a hoot :)

The shawl is preceding apace.  For those of you keeping count, I am nearing the end of the fourth row of blocks and about to start the third color change.

You should be able to see the first color change in the above picture though, of course, nothing has been blocked yet and I’m still trying to figure out just how blocking is going to take place.  Each block is 17 stitches wide and 34 rows long so whipping out one (or two or three!) in an evening isn’t any big deal and I’m vastly enjoying watching this take shape.  Also, while I’m not - and never will be - fond of lengthy cast-ons, there is this to be said for it: every iteration is shorter than the one before.  In this case, each row has one block less than the previous row.  That gets heady pretty quickly and I imagine as I approach the end of the shawl body, I’ll be racing to the finish line just because it’s getting closer and closer :) Of course I’ll probably also waste time when it comes to picking up the mumblety-hundred stitches for the edging!

I think I’ve mentioned that some of the medication that I’m taking makes my eyes water almost incessantly - which makes reading a real chore.  When you read like I do, that becomes a sore spot really, really fast.  But I remembered something finally that I had forgotten all about.

Years ago, dad had given me a large (about 4 inch diameter) magnifying lens.  It had no handle or frame but was useful all the same and I had kept it in my work bag.  I used it mostly to look at fine work - generally to find a mistake that had to be frogged.

Well, I hauled that sucker out and lo and behold, I could read again!  But I wanted something nicer to keep it in than the plastic bag it had been living in.  So I made a cotton pouch for it.

This way, I can keep it handy and protected.  Plus, sliding it in and out of the cotton bag helps clean and polish it.  Believe me, I’m glad to have it and can only wonder why it took me so long to remember it was there!

It seems that warmer weather has finally come to stay.  The tulips and jonquils over at my dad’s are blooming and forsythia is blossoming all over the place.  The cats too, seem to have noticed the difference and there has been a marked upswing in their activity level.  Never walk when you can run, never hit the floor if you can jump from one thing to another.  There has also been a substantial rise in the incidence of gerbil-watching :)

Finally, a random trip to a local supermarket last week yielded a lovely benefit :)

I would have thought this stuff would have been long gone, but there it was, stacked in a bin at the front of the store for 75% off!  That put the price at 50¢ apiece - so I bought 20 packages.  Between this and the dye I already have, I should be pretty well set for most of the next year.  Yee-hah!

Last Thursday evening at Chatters, we got to talking about UFOs - how we store them, how many we have and how (over time) we decide to either complete or frog the project.  A few of us thought it would be fun to play with that today so here are my UFOs along with commentary :) You can also check out Ev’s contribution over at Strings ‘n Things and Colleen’s projects in process at Musings of a Silver Rose.

So, starting with the oldest project, there’s the Japanese Feather Cowl.

You’ve probably seen this before and for the life of me I can’t figure out why it isn’t done.  There’s only a few rows left and this would have come in very handy this past winter.  Am I an idiot or what???  This even lives within arm’s reach - in a wooden bowl on the coffee table so it’s not like I’d have to get up and hunt for it if I wanted to work on it.  This will be completed - I am utterly determined - but probably not for a while yet…

Next up are the Summer Garden Socks…

I love this pattern and I love the yarn.  This time, it isn’t sheer laziness that’s kept me from finishing the project.  I have a couple of legitimate (to me) reasons.  First, the sock is looser that I would like ideally which means that given the yarn and needle size (neither of which will change) the cast on has to change a bit.  Also, as lovely as I find the heel, it’s too shallow and really does need to be changed.  What this means in practical terms is that I will probably frog this sock (and I left the yarn ends hanging because I knew this was a possibility) and start over again with my adaptations.

Then there’s a dishtowel I’m almost too embarrassed to mention.

The only reason this isn’t done is because it got put into a bag as a take-along project and never got moved back out of the bag.  Talk about out of sight, out of mind!  This will, however, get completed.  We need the dish towels too badly and as it’s crocheted, the time involved is negligible.  Now I just have to remember it’s there :)

There is also the Autumn Seeds sweater…

...which is essentially finished except for a few inches of sleeve - a day’s work at most!  This will also get completed though it’s already pretty much too late for the season.  No matter - this will be my first finished knitted sweater and I’m not going to pass up that triumph.  But I have to wonder about why I’ve been stalling on this one.  There’s nothing wrong with it, I’m not running out of yarn and finishing it up won’t take much in the way of time.  Afraid of success?  Couldn’t be…

Finally, there are the Tidal Wave socks.

These haven’t really been forgotten - just kind of shuffled aside as I’m working on something else at the moment.  I do note, however, that after I searched - unsuccessfully - for the last ball of yarn for this pair, things slowed down considerably :) I know the yarn is there - somewhere in the hall cabinets.  I just haven’t discovered it’s hiding place yet!  It’s nagging at me though, so I expect to go on an expedition some time soon.  I like these socks and would like to complete them.

There is actually one more thing - the entrelac shawl - but this is more of a work in progress than a UFO so I’m not sure it really counts.  I’ll be dyeing yarn for the next color tier today or tomorrow and will save its progress for another post later this week.

Happy Monday!

I’ve gotten the first and second tier colors for the new shawl dyed.  Better than that even, they finally dried over the weekend so I was able to…

Well, let’s back up just a little.  I was anxious to begin the shawl and had thought I would be able to do so on Saturday night.  And I was - able, but I didn’t - start.  That was because I had spent some time poring over stitch patterns and a few things had filtered down into my tiny little brain.

First of all, I had been planning to use a solid block with a bobble in the center (along with a lace block).  However, the longer I looked at that bobble, the less I liked it - but I didn’t want a plain, unrelieved, solid, stockinette block - therefore this…

This is a slip stitch pattern which (I thought) resembled ripples on a pond and after playing with several variations of this, the one above is what I believe will work best.

Second, while I liked the razor shell version I had planned to use for the lace block, I felt the block itself to be just slightly unbalanced.  So, of course, I had to fart around with that too :)

I think this works a little better although I’m not entirely sure there isn’t something else my brain hasn’t finished playing with yet.  Oh well, I guess it will let me know…

...but it’s going to have to be quick about it because last night, I finally, formally, started the actual shawl!

In terms of design, the bobble was going to provide a contrast color to the predominantly blue shawl.  Deciding that I really didn’t want the bobble didn’t alleviate the need for some contrast color in there somewhere.  Right now, I’m thinking about dyeing the border yarn in tans and dull oranges with maybe a little yellow in there too and definitely leaving some of the original cream.

But, you know, that could also change - seems like things do :)

I’ve gotten the first and second tier colors for the new shawl dyed.  Better than that even, they finally dried over the weekend so I was able to…

Well, let’s back up just a little.  I was anxious to begin the shawl and had thought I would be able to do so on Saturday night.  And I was - able, but I didn’t - start.  That was because I had spent some time poring over stitch patterns and a few things had filtered down into my tiny little brain.

First of all, I had been planning to use a solid block with a bobble in the center (along with a lace block).  However, the longer I looked at that bobble, the less I liked it - but I didn’t want a plain, unrelieved, solid, stockinette block - therefore this…

This is a slip stitch pattern which (I thought) resembled ripples on a pond and after playing with several variations of this, the one above is what I believe will work best.

Second, while I liked the razor shell version I had planned to use for the lace block, I felt the block itself to be just slightly unbalanced.  So, of course, I had to fart around with that too :)

I think this works a little better although I’m not entirely sure there isn’t something else my brain hasn’t finished playing with yet.  Oh well, I guess it will let me know…

...but it’s going to have to be quick about it because last night, I finally, formally, started the actual shawl!

In terms of design, the bobble was going to provide a contrast color to the predominantly blue shawl.  Deciding that I really didn’t want the bobble didn’t alleviate the need for some contrast color in there somewhere.  Right now, I’m thinking about dyeing the border yarn in tans and dull oranges with maybe a little yellow in there too and definitely leaving some of the original cream.

But, you know, that could also change - seems like things do :)

I’ve gotten the first and second tier colors for the new shawl dyed.  Better than that even, they finally dried over the weekend so I was able to…

Well, let’s back up just a little.  I was anxious to begin the shawl and had thought I would be able to do so on Saturday night.  And I was - able, but I didn’t - start.  That was because I had spent some time poring over stitch patterns and a few things had filtered down into my tiny little brain.

First of all, I had been planning to use a solid block with a bobble in the center (along with a lace block).  However, the longer I looked at that bobble, the less I liked it - but I didn’t want a plain, unrelieved, solid, stockinette block - therefore this…

This is a slip stitch pattern which (I thought) resembled ripples on a pond and after playing with several variations of this, the one above is what I believe will work best.

Second, while I liked the razor shell version I had planned to use for the lace block, I felt the block itself to be just slightly unbalanced.  So, of course, I had to fart around with that too :)

I think this works a little better although I’m not entirely sure there isn’t something else my brain hasn’t finished playing with yet.  Oh well, I guess it will let me know…

...but it’s going to have to be quick about it because last night, I finally, formally, started the actual shawl!

In terms of design, the bobble was going to provide a contrast color to the predominantly blue shawl.  Deciding that I really didn’t want the bobble didn’t alleviate the need for some contrast color in there somewhere.  Right now, I’m thinking about dyeing the border yarn in tans and dull oranges with maybe a little yellow in there too and definitely leaving some of the original cream.

But, you know, that could also change - seems like things do :)