A Host of WIPs

There has been quite a bit of knitting going on in these parts. Too much, some might even say. (Just kidding, that's not a thing.) I'm currently plugging away on 3 projects, two of which are nearing the end.

First are these wonderful thick, cozy aran socks.

I posted a photo of the first finished sock a few posts back, and right now I'm about halfway through the second sock. The cozyness factor of these socks is off the chart, and as a person who wears wool socks inside all year long, I'm looking forward to having these off the needles and on my feet.

A few days before Jesse came to stay with us, I dyed up two skeins of wool/silk blend using cutch extract - one for me, and one for her. While she was visiting, we decided to use them to knit the same project, giving us 100% matching shawls. If that's not true friendship, I don't know what is. We landed on the ginkgo shawlette, a beautiful free shawl pattern. Since each skein of yarn is 440 yards rather than 330 yards the pattern calls for, we're going to add to the lace pattern to make it bigger than the pattern. I'll admit, the stockinette section seemed to take forever to me, but once I hit the lace it's been flying. I'm officially hooked on double-sided lace patterns - no more boring purl rows!

I absolutely love how this color turned out, and how it's knitting up. I'm a bit further than this now, and the lace pattern is really starting to stand out.

Finally, just a couple of days ago I started a lightweight pullover. Last year, an Instagram friend, Corinne, was de-stashing some of her yarns, and I grabbed a ziplock bag full of Quince and Co's Finch. I wasn't sure how much was in there, but loved the look of all the colors together, and thought it would make a nice cowl if nothing else. Plus, I'd been itching to try some Quince and Co yarn, and this was the perfect opportunity to snatch some up and give it a try.

Boy was I surprised when this arrived and I weighed it to figure out the yardage. You're looking at almost 1,700 yards of this bouncy, squishy, lovely yarn. I knew that they belonged together in some sort of pullover, I just wasn't sure. So I did a quick gauge check, ran some numbers, and cast on with no real plan in mind, other than a top down, raglan style, striped pullover.

This is what it looked like yesterday morning. I put in some work on it last night, and am already loving how it's turning out. At first I tried to imagine all different types of striped sequences - wide stripes getting smaller down the body, smaller stripes getting wider going down the body (that one went out the window pretty quickly - no one wants to look like they're getting wider down their body...), or stripes of different, yet complementary, sizes in a particular color order. In the end, I decided to throw all those out the window, and change colors whenever I feel like it. These colors all fit together pretty well, so I felt like throwing caution and planning to the wind could work. So far, so good. But I'll save those photos for another post.

Another reason I decided to go ahead and start this pullover is because it's the perfect companion knitting for the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament - I don't really have to pay attention to it like I would with the lace and cables in my other two projects, and the theme of the sweater sort of matches the theme of the tournament - no one is able to predict the outcome.

I'd love to hear what you're working on these days!