Smiles all around

First off, thank you for the wonderful comments on my last post. I sometimes find myself getting caught up in the product side of knitting instead of appreciating the process side that I really love. Your comments really helped remind me of that.

Secondly, something wonderful happened.

I finished the Swan Lake Stole (a.k.a Mystery Stole 3).

I love how the feathers photographed in this blocking picture. It's so amazing that the different directions of the stitches cause the yarn to look darker on one half of the feather than on the other.

Cast off last Monday. Blocked last Tuesday. Admired last Wednesday and photographed...well, photographed many days later. The shorter daylight hours and my longer work hours have combined to make it nearly impossible to get a good picture in natural light.

Pink Lemon Twist's Mystery Stole 3: Swan Lake
Yarn: JaggerSpun Zephyr Wool-Silk in Pewter
Amount: 1.2 skeins
Left over: about 504 yards
Size: Long version
Started: July 2007
Finished: October 23, 2007

As predicted, I'm loving the extra repeats of Clue 4 in the long version of the stole. The extra length has made the stole more versatile and has moved the transition point between the stole and the wing to my arm which seems more natural to me.

Finally one out of five goals accomplished for this month. If I'm lucky I might even squeeze out one more tonight or tomorrow.

Colour

Twelve days from the END of October and still there is nary a FO to be seen. Mystery Stole has eaten up more time than I ever dreamt possible and it is still 50 rows short of the blocking board. To add insult to injury, it looks almost the same as it did a week ago and is thus not blog worthy.

Autumn Rose on the other hand is holding its own with one entire pattern repeat done on the first sleeve. I am in love with the transitions between colours. This picture does not do it justice (can you believe that there are 11 colours in this?!). In person, everything seems to effortlessly fade from one colour to the next.


In other colour news, I took my first ever trip to the dye pot a few weeks back and came out with this.

200 grams of a Merino Tussah blend. Dyed in bright raspberry, twiggy brown-green, and leafy green.

Mmmm...silky. I can't wait to spin this up! It is so soft and shiny and I am very happy with the colours.

I also dyed up 200 grams of this tone-on-tone turquoise merino. It was dyed using three different intensities of turquoise.

I really enjoyed spending an afternoon over the dye pots. After I see how both of these rovings spin up, I will definitely going back to see what else I can come up with.

Hope you all have a great and yarn filled weekend!

Clue 5 of 7

After knitting for almost a solid week on MS3, I am finally pleased to report that I am very nearly halfway through Clue 5.

Although unblocked lace is pretty nondescript, I am attaching photos.

As mentioned in the last post, I decided to knit the long version of the stole. This will hopefully turn out to be a smart idea in the end but it was a painful two hundred some rows of cat's paw lace.

The goal for this week is to finish Clue 6. This goal is overly ambitious but I feel like it is the only way that I am going to have a hope of making it through my UFOctober list over the next 19 days. Mystery Stole is the priority since I need the needles for my November NaKniSweMo project, Eunny's Tangled Yoke Cardigan from the Fall '07 Interweave magazine (and for those who are keeping count, that will be my third project from this issue).

At least there is a method to my madness.

Wherefore art thou mojo?

For the last two weeks my knitting has felt unsettled. I pick up a project, knit a few rows, put it down, start a new project, buy some yarn, pick up a second project and repeat.

It is frustrating. The Tilted Duster is five, yes FIVE, rows from being finished. Sew up two seams, slap on some buttons and voila a FO. Still, I can't bring myself to do it. Every morning as I choose my commute knitting for the day I look at it, sigh and pick up something else.

I feel overwhelmed at the number of UFOs in the metaphorical knitting basket. Some days I'm not knitting at all.

In the past week I've done a dozen rows on MS3, started a sock from Cat Bordhi's new book, picked at my first Autumn Rose sleeve, completed two rows on a scarf that I abandoned shortly after casting on last winter, knit a few rows on the second Snowflake Sock and spun an ounce or two of fleece. Looking at it now the list seems long but there is no noticeable progress on any of my projects.

To try and shake the blahs, I've decided that it is time to prioritize and set some goals for October as a way to prove to myself that I'm making some headway on the ol' WIP list. As an added incentive I've decided to join the UFOctober KAL.

So which "monkeys" will I be getting off my back?

1) Mystery Stole 3 - Swan Lake
- After realizing that my gauge was going to yield more of an oversized scarf than an actual stole, I decided to knit the long version. This has set me back roughly one hundred rows. I hope to survive Clue 4 and get this project off the needles.

2) Snowflake Socks
- I've started the second one out of habit but it needs to get done. This month is the one.

3) Tilted Duster
- So little left, I should be able to get this done in the next twenty-some days.

4) Autumn Rose
- This is a long-term project. If I knit nothing else all month, I might be able to finish it. Given the length of this list it is probably more realistic to commit to finishing both sleeves by the end of the month.

5) Spiraling Coriolis Socks
- The first one is past the heel turn, the second is conceptual at this point. I should be able to finish these off in honour of Socktober.

And there you have it, a shove out of a rut. Wish me luck.

(Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends. Hopefully 9 hours on a train will provide me with some updated photos for you next week.)