Works in Progress

My floor loom made it home today, thanks to my wonderful friend Kim. I'm very excited, and all I want to do is (1) show it off and (2) start playing with it. But I've decided to wait until tomorrow to post pictures and talk about the looms. Wednesdays have always been my primary day to talk about knitting (Wednesday's WIPs and FOs). When there's something spinning to talking about, it usually just gets added into the knitting discussion.

Now that I have two looms, I plan to document my progress as I learn to weave on them. So I've decided to give the looms their very own day.Well, the looms and the spinning wheel get a day. Thursdays will be LeToTT for me. "Le" for Lendrum, my spinning wheel, and "ToTT" for the looms (which were made by Tools of the Trade, affectionately known in the weaving world as ToTT.)

Since today is Wednesday, let me show you what's on my needles:

The Hedera socks are coming along quickly. I've knit about three-quarters of the pair. I can probably finish these this weekend. I really like them, even if the color is a little too busy (okay, a lot too busy) for the lace pattern. The pattern was so easy to memorize, which is one of my favorite things about a Cookie A pattern. They all look so complicated and intricate, but once you start knitting it's all very intuitive.
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My other project this week has been the Lemonade Stole. Actually, I frogged the Lemonade shawl because I just wasn't happy with it. It was part of a knit-a-long, and the intention was for the group to spin the same fiber and then knit it into the same pattern in order to see how different spinning techniques affected the knitting. It was a great idea. And I loved seeing the different results. I just didn't love the pattern we were using. It was a very pretty pattern, and well written. But it ate up yarn, and so my finished project was going to be way to small to ever be useful. I finally banished it to the WIPs pile in favor of a "better" project. But I really am determined to clear away that pile of WIPs, so the Lemonade Stole was frogged. On the suggestion of my friend Paula, I used the yarn to start a new stole using the The Three Way Scarf pattern by Diana Gonzalez. I am totally loving this reincarnated project. This pattern is a very quick, easy knit. And it shows off the yarn beautifully. I've renamed it my Florida A/C shawl.

My only other knitting is an announcement that the Tour-de-Sock will be starting on October 1st, and I've decided to compete. There are six stages, and the goal is to be be the first to finish knitting a pair of socks at each level. (If you aren't the first, you have to at least complete the entire pair within the nine days allowed for each level.) There are prizes and bragging rights involved. Wish me luck! Better yet, join me in the competition!

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Blanket Update:

199 squares in 228 days

(Status: I need to get caught up before the big competition!)