The March of Progress

The projects I took with me to Dallas last week were the Herringbone Rib socks, which continue to delight me with the play of color. I finished sock one and cast on sock two, but once I got to the festival I needed something simpler. It's easy to miscount all those passed-over stitches and yarn overs when you're watching dancers and musicians and tapping your feet to the beat.  Fortunately I was prepared for this. 

For my simple project, I grabbed a solid color and cast on the trusty garter rib pattern. Black yarn wouldn't have been my first choice for a travel color, but I wanted them for a gift, and it was the only 'guy' color I had. Also most of the festival was in daylight, both flights were in daylight, and as it turns out, I can knit garter rib in semi-darkness by feel. One festival, two jam sessions, one flight, a couple of evenings, another terrific concert and Sunday knit group later- a complete pair of garter rib socks.  (These are true black- the photo washed them out a bit.)

And speaking of Sunday knit group- although I missed the yarn swap, the knitters were kind enough to save me some yarn. Admittedly, some of it was yarn of mine that didn't find a home. But around half of it got exchanged for new yarn, most of it quite a bit more useful than the yarn I lost. The bagful of worsted odds and ends was irresistable- I had to immediately cast on for some mittens. For mittens, I adore using up ends- I get to change colors before I'm bored and have the gratification of using up skeins to the last end.

Biscuit checks out the new yarn.

Okay, amend that. I had to remove a fluffy cat from the bag of yarn, *then* I could cast on mittens. With frequent pauses to say things like, "No, Biscuit! Don't eat that!" as I removed a plastic bag from his tiny fangs, and "No, mine!", as I wrestled an errant ball of yarn out of his paws. Even Cookie got into the act- as I was double-winding yarn for two-at-a-time mittens, he pounced on the pile of unwound yarn and it snarled horribly while I was taking it away from him. (My husband is no help in these matters. He watches snickering while saying things like, "but you weren't using it!". )  But I did finally achieve mittens.

`Also at knit group, as a reward for finishing socks, I cast on for a new hat, out of Biscuit's favorite homespun. I've been careful not to knit that one when he's prowling around- he likes homespun wool way more than acrylic. No doubt it's the interesting smell of the less-processed wool that intrigues him, but it's very unhelpful to the knitting process. (No photo- I'll take one when there's a bit more than the cast on to show for it.)

The Wasabi hat has continued to grow-another real delight to watch the pattern unfold.

Naturally having more projects has made some things slow down, but I still feel like I'm making progress all over the place.  There's nothing like  a few quick mittens to give you that finishing zing when you've been working on a steady diet of socks and sweaters!