I'm back!

Yes, dear readers, I am back from my trip to North Carolina--and I have brought... well, not gifts... but finished project goodness to make up for my long absence!

First, the Ugly Red Scarf. Once opened, it turned out to not be as horrible as I thought it would be. Purple and red still bothers me, but the scarf itself is pretty cool:


Next, the Chancellorific Exchequered Scarf. I have a feeling I'm going to be knitting more of these scarves... most of the people who have seen it say that I must keep it for myself, and that they wouldn't mind having one themselves. I originally made this as a gift, but since the recipient has no idea, I suppose I could just as well slip it into my box of winter gloves and wraps... ;-)

I started a new project--a baby shawl. This will hopefully be finished sooner than the Hearts and Stars blanket. One of the reasons for the newfound speed (which also helped the Emperor's New Scarf churn right along) is that I have been knitting Continental. I made an extra effort to do it with the scarf, since it was a heavier yarn than I generally work with and perfect knitting wasn't crucial to the final outcome--if I had any little bobbles or slight inconsistencies, the Karabella 8 was forgiving. This baby shawl has long stretches of st-st, so I race along in rows of knitting or purling, pausing only at the edges for a little k/p switch-up.


Finishing it quickly is a goal for a number of reasons--the first of which is probably that my mom bought the yarn for me on a New Year's sale and has been dropping not-so-subtle hints about how she bought that yarn for a blanket for her grandson (my nephew) every time she sees a new project in my hands.

Since I am marvelously organized, here's a breakdown of the current Knitting Project List:

• Blue Baby Shawl (from Debbie Bliss' Special Knits) in Rowan Cashsoft DK
• Bryan's Beanie in... I don't have the yarn with me right now, but it's really nice and soft.
• Crinoid Scarf from Morehouse Merino. I yearned for the kit after seeing it online for a couple months and finally bought the kit when I saw them at MD S&W. I haven't made the kit yet, obviously, but the yarn is delightfully soft and the girls working there were so pleasant that I wouldn't hesitate to buy something from them again.

That list takes care of knitting from my stash. Well, it won't take care of my stash, but those are the projects for which I have matched yarn and patterns. I am trying to decide what to do with that Misty Mountain extra-fine alpaca. It will most likely become a well-used throw.

Other projects I am pondering (which means that I'll make them all in good time):

• Icarus Shawl (as featured in Interweave Knits Summer 2006 - scroll down for picture which enticed me to make it). Need to buy Suri Elegance for it. Link to pattern and other pics from the designer here.
• Starlight Wrap designed by Ann at knitspot.
• Kay's Lace Shrug by Dream in Color yarn. This is mostly because I desperately want some DIC yarn. I think I will order a couple skeins and if it is everything I hoped it would be, I will try to talk my LYS owner into distributing it.