Polygamy

The knitting post. I fear that this might turn out to be almost embarassing. I have developed the worst case of project polygamy that I have ever had in my knitting career. I can not knit on the same thing more than two days in a row. In the last three days I have knit on four different projects. And it is taking every ounce of strength I have to not cast on about half a dozen new projects. Perhaps it's all the knitting deadlines that have suddenly appeared before me when I promised myself to cut back on the deadline knitting and knit more for myself. I do feel excessively guilty looking at all the WIPs that surround me. And I think that's why I can't bear to keep picking them up, trying to ignore their pleas. But, like a good knit blogger, I will fess up.
The first is the project that I feel most guilty about. My father's Christmas socks. Though, in my defense I had to stop knitting on them after like the first day of my vacation because I had serious doubts whether they'd fit and had no circular needles to test them out on my father. They still aren't done because I keep knitting on other things. As predicted, I ripped out the heel. It was a bit too snug and he didn't like the ridge on the bottom of the heel. So I just improvised a traditional short row heel and all is well. I mean, it was a very cool technique the dutch heel, just not very practical. They are now long enough to display properly on the sock blockers so here's a better look at them:

The next item on the list (with a little less guilt) is a UFO that's been sitting on my dresser and haunting me since the summer. You may or may not remember that I was making some Laguna Wave toe-up socks out of Duet Sock Yarn back in like June/July. I finished one sock and got about 1/3 of the way through the second. There's really no excuse for this as they're made out of DK weight yarn and the knitting it ridiculously fast. I re-learned how to do the toe-up short row heel and am now traveling up the leg of the sock. Hopefully there will be a pair by the end of the week. I'm not too happy with how the short rows look but it's an improvement over the first sock. We'll do a compare and contrast once they're done. But to jog your memory, here it is so far:

What fun bright colours she dyes up for Duets huh?
Next is the "Hooded Baby Carrying Sack" for my supervisor's child to be. Or as I call it, the baby bunting (seriously, who came up with that really overly utilitarian name 'carrying sack'?). The body at the moment is 22.5 inches long and I'm into the sleeves. The entire thing, front, back, sleeves, hood and all is knitted in one big piece so it's interesting to see how the shape is going to develop.

I was really a bit concerned when I got to the directions for starting the arms. Just CO 36 stitches at the beginning of the next two rows. Seriously? I was just befuddled wondering how that could possibly look good. Seeing as how I usually do all my cast ons long tail, I wasn't too sure what might work best. I suspected a knitted cast on but messaged a lady on ravelry who'd knitted the same pattern and asked her what she used. As it turns out, a knitted cast on is what she used so I plowed on. And I must say, I am truly amazed at how nice it looks. Practically seamless. I guess we all need to learn to have a bit more faith sometimes in our projects don't we?

The other project I was knitting was... well I cast on for Eiffel. But only did about 3 repeats of the lace on the sleeve which isn't saying much as it's a 4 row repeat. I just couldn't help myself. The yarn is too soft and I'm desperate to get working on a new sweater. But at the same time I am fighting off the urge. There is no picture yet as there isn't much progress. And if I can help myself, there won't be any progress until I finish other things. I'm hoping that giving in to casting on will satisfy my sweater urge, even if only for a bit.
There's other things to say but I fear I've let too much build and I've said too much already for one post. So I'll just have to do another one on Tuesday perhaps :) Blog more often right? Right! Have a great week.