"Everything is Almost Done," or "Nothing is Actually Finished"

I feel like I really have my knit on lately. Sorry, even as I typed that sentence I could hear my kids in my head, shouting "Stop, mom. Don't ever say that again!" But seriously, I have several projects that I'm working on that I am really happy with.

The Mince Pie Mayhem socks that I started in  February (has it really been that long?) are amazing. I love the crossed cable pattern, even if it does mean that these socks are not a take-to-knit-night project.I just have one foot and two toes left to finish, and then they can be gifted. These really should have been finished by now, except I got side-tracked by a new project. (Yes, I admit I am a knitting ho. There is no monogamy in my project relationships; I am too easily seduced by a skein of luxurious fiber or an interesting pattern.)

It was a sweater that seduced me from my sock-knitting. Yes, a sweater. I don't normally knit sweaters. But I had the yarn in my stash, a very soft and shiny Bamboo Wool from Moda-Dea that I had won in a knitting event a few years ago. Since there was a sweater's worth, I let my oldest daughter pick out a pattern. She chose the Rockfall Sweater by Mari Chiba featured in the Spring 2013 issue of Knitscene. It's a very simple seamless sweater knit from the bottom up. The asymmetrical  lace at the neckline adds the perfect amount of interest to an otherwise plain sweater.

Since I don't normally knit sweaters - in fact, I don't normally knit with worsted weight wool, preferring the thin sock or lace weights - I was surprised at how quickly I made progress on this project. I started it on May 2nd, and I have 2 more rows left before I bind off and kitchner the armpits.

By the way, just in case you think I'm playing favorites with my children, I have a sweater's worth of the same yarn,  in black, to knit my younger daughter a sweater as well.

There's one more project that I've been working on pretty regularly. This started out as a knit along (KAL) with a couple of girls in my Thursday night knitting group. It's the Hecate by Kirsten Kapur. Of course, the first girl (Charity, our resident shawl expert) finished her shawl before Sharon or I even had the chance to cast on. So our knit along became a follow along. I thought I was making good progress, even though I was splitting my time between the shawl and the sweater, but Sharon just finished her shawl. So the knit along turned follow along is now a fall behind.

I really am loving both the pattern and the yarn. I'm using my own handspun yarn for this shawl, and despite the fact that it is often splitty and tends to be unevenly spun in places, the yarn is beautiful to work with. When I started out, I wasn't sure about my choice. Sharon convinced me that the colors went well together, and she was totally on the mark. I've seen Charity's and Sharon's finished and blocked shawls, so I'm really looking forward to getting this done.

Finally, here is an updated picture of my Never-Ending Sock Yarn Blanket. Can you believe that I started this thing back in 2008? I've finally passed the halfway mark, but there's still a lot of squares to go. (The left side is even, although it doesn't look like it in the picture. I hadn't realized that it was folded under a bit when I took the picture.) To date, I've knit 696 squares out of an estimated 1054 needed.