Knitting update

Jean reminded me with her comment to yesterday's post that I've been neglecting putting my knitting updates on here (probably because I've been keeping my Ravelry account so compulsively updated instead)...

As most of the people I want to keep updated on my knitting are actually *not* on Ravelry, I should probably go back to posting regular updates here.

I've had a bad habit of starting lots of projects before finishing others. I know it's good to have more than one project going on at a time, but it's probably better to have a manageable number of projects going on... ;)

Recently Finished Projects
I've been knitting hats/scarves for homeless teens in the San Francisco area. This is something near and dear to the heart of one of my friends in my Wednesday night knitting group, whose daughter spent time being homeless in San Francisco.


Afghans & Blankets in Progress
This afghan was the first I started, and is nearly done. Only thing left to do is pick up and knit the border. Easy enough... if I had 3-foot long needles. ;) I've got good circulars that'd do the trick, but they're the wrong needle size, so this one is on hold until I have a good set of US 9 circulars at 36" or above.

This is my first time working with cables. I absolutely love this blanket, and so do the cats. It's wonderful that they love it so much, but it makes it difficult for me to finish it while a cat is making biscuits on it. I've gotten about twice as far as this picture shows, but I don't have any recent photos that aren't mostly blocked by a very happy cat... :)

A "drop-stitch blanket"... should be very nice for cool evenings, but the cabled one above would be better for cold nights. It's a simple pattern that requires little thought, and as it's so light-weight it's better for taking on the train... but this one gets ignored most of the time.


I'm also working on a simple baby blanket as an experiment and practice for making gifts for my friends and family who are (or will someday soon be) expecting. Unfortunately, I have no photos of it yet.

Various Other Projects
I'm making a tote bag that I'm going to felt. I'm using scraps of feltable wool that I received from various people on Ravelry who had no use for their scraps. As you can see, it is its own project bag! I love making bags bottom-up. :)

I'm making socks! These ones are for me. They're alpaca. Yum! Silas is coveting them. I may let him have them as my calves are a little big for this pattern. We'll see.

These are the socks I'm making for Silas. If I like them for myself, then I'll definitely let him have the others instead. ;) These are a washable acrylic/wool blend, and will have a shorter leg on them. Silas chose the pattern and the yarn.

This was supposed to be a one-skein purse. Apparently, one-skein wasn't enough. I frogged it once, changed needles, and got back this far only to discover there's not enough yarn left. I'm going to frog it and do something else with the yarn - probably a purse, but a different one.

I was also working on a baby blanket with some interesting cabling going on. Unfortunately, the fabric was coming out far too stiff and it was painful to work with. I've frogged it and now am re-using the yarn for the simpler baby blanket I mentioned above.


... and that's it for this edition of "overwhelmed with knitting updates!" Check back in another couple months for another overwhelming edition! ;) Kidding, of course. Hopefully I'll be better at updating as I go along so I can avoid having to do these massive catch-up posts... :)