Look, a shiny thing!

Yep, I have another WIP. Ravelry has my WIP count as just 7, which is pretty reasonable for me. Well, anyway...

A sweet-talker at my church managed to get me to commit to making at least one knitted item for our upcoming Silent Auction at the annual Hometown Halloween bash. (She is very good.) Thankfully, the one I chose is super quick; I started yesterday and am on the third and final ball already. It's a simple garter-stitch shawl out of a ribbon yarn I picked up at KnitCamp 4/07 from the 'free' pile. It has very pretty colors, which was what first drew me to it, but it doesn't light my fire enough to keep it for me. What I didn't realize at the time is how very soft it is. I hope it will be chosen as a lovely, soft shawl by someone at the auction.

I also took out some other ribbon yarn I had marinating in the stash, as well as a ladder yarn and a viscose blend that is lovely. Maybe I'll make 1 or 2 more things and then get back to my Christmas knitting.

In other news: I bought buttons for Bristow! I looked at quite a few at my local Beverly's, and G offered his opinions, and we settled on a set of green buttons that really match the yarn beautifully. I had been sure I'd end up with gold or antiqued gold buttons, but none of them worked well. Quite a few overshadowed the lovely patterning in the sweater. And the green is such an amazing match. I laid the buttons out yesterday to mark the buttonholes and started picking up and knitting the stitches for the buttonhole band. Then I'll have the neckband to do, and c'est fini!

I took a photo, but not of me wearing it:

Bristow, needing buttons
Originally uploaded by RenaissanceWomn

I also got a photo of the Anemoi mittens I'm making for my stepmom. I'm on row 26 and still really enjoying it.

Anemoi mitten back
Originally uploaded by RenaissanceWomn

Anemoi mitten palm
Originally uploaded by RenaissanceWomn

Finally, I'm on the 2nd ball of 4 of the Palindrome scarf for my sister. I'm finally humming along on this one. (No pic update yet.)

Good thing I knit! I spent nearly an hour at the police station getting fingerprinted today. (Story at 11.)

Another time when it's good to be short

In reviewing the dimensions of Bristow, I realized that the sweater was going to be too long--nearly 4" too long in the body, and I-forget-how-long in the sleeves. It's designed for a longer, leaner body than mine, I think. So I made changes in the pattern (which also involved changing the frequency of the increases or decreases) to shorten the pattern pieces.

Now I'm done knitting and have 5 full balls of yarn left over. Assuming I use a significant amount of one ball for seaming and collar/button bands, I will still only have used about 1200 yds for this sweater.

This is great news: it means I can likely make any sweater with 1200 yds of worsted-weight wool from my stash! I have been looking for sets of 1600 yds in general. (It also means I can make the aran cardigan I've been designing in my head, as Bristow has plenty of cables and other aran designs.) In fact, if a sweater is mostly st st, I can probably get by with less than 1200 yds.

Yay for short bodies!

Bristow: on to the sleeves!

Makes it sound more exciting than it really is, eh? I finished the right front. Woo.

Actually, I'm feeling really hopeful at how quickly Bristow is moving along. I feel like I kind of "get" the pattern now. I'm hoping to knit both sleeves together, once I get past the cuffs (which, on my size 4s, are just too wide to knit at the same time). Then they'll be the same length... be it short or long! I cast on one sleeve at noon today. Funny how I don't mind seed stitch when it's just 7 rows and it's for me me me.

I also got lots done on a new washcloth for Rabbitch's drive. It's from the rest of my Peaches & Cream that I used for my string bag (which I still love but it's holding all that Calmer I bought at the garage sale; I need to stash that so I can use the bag again!). I'm making one of those basic biased garter-stitch washcloths with the yo increases till you get halfway across (I'm going to weigh the yarn to try to use it all up), and it's now my waiting-in-the-car project, since I just finished my other one.

I still haven't started a new lace project... odd, isn't it? I'm once again eyeing Birch, to see if I can master her after all. (There is just no way to write that without it sounding like a sex thing. Or maybe it's just me.)

This monogamy is new

I'm not usually a monogamous knitter--and strictly speaking, I haven't been entirely monogamous. But I have been largely only working on the Olive Bristow sweater, and it is really coming right along! I'm about 2/3 done with the right front, and the left front and the back are already done. I may block them as I start the sleeves. Then, button bands and finishing, and--voilà!--sweater.

Right front of Bristow

Left front of Bristow

Back of Bristow

And then I can get started on Christmas knitting...!

Still loving the olive sweater

I am 9" up the back on the Olive sweater already. Had some things to juggle, as her length is way longer than I need, and some increases had to be done by her 14" (my 11") mark, so instead of every 6 rows, I'm increasing every 3 rows (which means I have to increase on the purl side every other time; thank goodness for the increase Dharma taught me, where I knit/purl into the shoulder of the stitch below--no holes!). The drape is lovely, the color gorgeous, and the sheen entrancing.

And oh my god I could actually be finished in a matter of weeks.

Plus, don't drop your coffee, I got some knitting done on Clapotis, too. I do like it still. (Wish I didn't have to pay attention quite so much, though.)