Startitis

I appear to have got a bit carried away with starting new projects, although there is a reason for the craziness, especially now I have more knitting time. I started off working on a Mini Mania Scarf, which is looking good, but the linen stitch was making my hands hurt if I did it for more than an hour, so I needed another project to work on alongside it. I decided to cast on a different lace shawl, as I was struggling with the South Seas Stole pattern, so decided to switch to something else. One of the other librarians on our knitting librarian jaunt in February was wearing a beautiful Aeolian Shawl, so I have started one of those instead. So far, so good, although it turns out I can only knit lace when I'm the only person in the house and nothing else is happening (other than the Cazalets on Radio 4), which has limited the amount of time I've spent knitting it.

I thought a nice contrast to the lace would be some aran, so I cast on Velvet Morning, which I'd planned to knit after acquiring 9 balls of Araucania Toconao in a sale from Norfolk Yarn whilst on holiday in Norwich a couple of years ago. I then acquired three more balls in contrast colours in an online sale from Stash Yarns later on.

This is lovely squishy yarn to knit with and feels wonderful. I got gauge and happily knitted away, until I checked gauge again on the Fair Isle section and realised I was way off. So, having got this far, I had to go back and start again.

 Although it turns out the variegated colour works better on 5mm needles as the pooling's been eliminated. I'm really enjoying knitting this, and using the two handed Fair Isle technique I learnt on a workshop at Get Knitted in Bristol back in 2009. I can still remember how to knit continental!

 Whilst the Fair Isle is OK for TV knitting, it really wasn't suitable for taking to a conference (too many colours, too many balls to consider alongside taking notes, and lots of aran not a great idea for on the train), so obviously I needed to start another project. This one needed to be small and portable, so I went back through my queue and chose Froot Loop, some socks that I've been wanting to do for a while. I got my 4 ply boxes out and chose some stash (funny how that's easier with the actual yarn out, rather than going through my stash catalogue). I matched it with some cheap n' cheerful Woolcraft Superwash Sock Yarn (they must have spent ages thinking up that name), purchased at the Knitting Box in Barton-upon-Humber. Actually, I'm rather pleased with the yarn, as it's nice to knit with and the colours are great.

So, I have somehow ended up with four projects on the go. Oh well, they all seem to be progressing well and variety is the spice of life...