Taking Care

I've been so busy taking care of business around Chez Shoelaceswitcher that I've barely had a chance to blog! Day-to-day life things really do add up. Revelation: I thought cleaning and keeping up with the house would be easier with all this time off... but it's not. Turns out when you're home more, you mess the place up more and spend lots of time finding more things that need doing. Boo.

But I have been knitting! In fact, I knit an entire project in two days. I can't show it to you in its entirety because it's the prototype of something I might use for my Malabrigo Quickie featured design in January, but here's a pretty swatch:

Malabrigo Twist, colorways Indiecita and Natural

I'm not counting this one as a finished project yet because I'm not completely happy with it. I'm going to try a few other ideas out first.

Good news, though: I've finally reached the edging of my Color Affection shawl!

Bugga, colorways undyed, common emerald moth, and fierce snake

I was so excited to cut the strands of the main color and  first contrast color. Now it's just... more of the same worked over about 400 stitches for 2 inches! *sarcastic yaaaaay!* But at least now I'm only working with one ball of yarn, I hate untangling my working yarn every few rows. This shawl is at the point where the Fiasco is saying things like "Don't stop, keep knitting!" and "Finish that damn thing already, I wanna see it." Nothing like some motivation!

I've been making strides in sock knitting as well. I'm at the first heel of my Summer Holiday Socks:

The Verdant Gryphon Eidos, colorway Parzival

I've also finally had the chance to re-work and write up most of my Lillypad sock design, starting a second sample in the process:

The Verdant Gryphon Bugga, colorway Yellow Fringe Doris

I edited the stitch counts and made small changes to the picot cuff. I have to knit through to the foot again and work on those charts (damn my incomplete note-taking!) but shortly after that the pattern will be ready for testing and tech editing. Woohoo! Sorry to keep some of you waiting, I promise the pattern will happen!

That's all I've been working on lately. Hopefully I'll have some FOs to share soon. I can't help but fantasize over which long-suffering WIP I want to tackle next. I think it will be my Flamboyan shawl (a.k.a. Beautiful Briny Sea):

SG and Cephalopod Yarn Bugga, colorways Box Jellyfish and Blue Ringed Octopus

I have an unofficial goal of wanting to finish it by Rhinebeck (yes, because it matches my sneakers, and that weirdly makes me happy), along with a hat and another shawl and maybe another shawl. *hysterical laughter* What unattainable goals have you been dreaming about lately?

Year of Projects progress update (7 down, 43 to go):

1. WIPs: 2/10 finished, 1/8 left in progress
2. SIPs: 1/5  finished
3. New Projects: 1/14 finished, 2/13 left in progress
4. New Socks: 2/6 in progress
5. Of My Own Design: 3/16 finished, 2/13 left in progress