Things finished, and just begun

I've found that I get a lot more knitting done now that J is in school. It probably has something to do with the ungodly amount of time I spend sitting in the car loop in the afternoons. Seriously, getting in the lineup by 1:50 means I'm about 20th in line for 2:25 dismissal. I can't complain too much, though, since it's a nice quiet 35 minutes where I can sit and get things done.

Here's the latest project to come off the needles.



Can you tell what it is? Yep. R2D2 all the way around. I'm not terribly pleased with this one, but it was good colorwork practice. I'm hoping it'll fit hubby well enough to get a little use. I might knit a lining inside to cover up the floats and sort of snug it up a bit, but there may not be much hope for it. It swallows my head, and I've got a pretty big noggin. I am going to cast on another one with one less repeat and see how that does. Yeah, sure, I could probably avoid the frustration of a poorly sized hat by swatching better, but c'mon, it's a hat. I could have finished half of this before I could get an accurate swatch, so I didn't bother, and I'm not upset with the result at all.

Now that I'm done with this, I'm back to working on the eternal socks. I somehow got all wonky on the second sock, and so I stuffed them back in their bag for quite a while and gave them a time out until I could think clearly. I think I've got it figured out enough to complete it now, and although it may not be the most perfect pair, they'll keep my feet warm this winter, and the 'messed up' part will be hidden in my shoe anyway.

This is an old picture of the first sock. I'm half-way down the foot of the second, so I'm in the home stretch now.

I'm starting to compile my Christmas gift list in my head, and I've decided I'm scaling back from last year's effort, yet still plan on making quite a bit.

I, obviously, can't share the entire list here, lest I risk completely spoiling any surprises, but I have a few ambitious things already started. First of all... this yarn, which was intended to be a sport weight, but ended up, even when plied, as a thin laceweight. I originally spun about 800 yards of singles, but then ended up cabling them, resulting in less than 200 yards of a 4-ply fuzzy sportish weight 100% alpaca, which I am hopeful will be enough to complete a certain something for someone. It's drying as we speak, and then I have to decide whether I'm going to knit it first, or dye it first. I want J to choose the color and help dye it. Not sure if he'd get more pleasure out of dying the yarn or the finished product. Here's a really crappy picture of it hanging to dry.



And, finally, I started spinning up some mystery wool today. I have no idea what's in this, but I love the colors. It's amazingly springy to spin after a long run with alpaca. I'm constantly amused by it's bounce. This was given to me by Michele, who bought it to attempt spinning on a drop spindle. I can see why she had so much trouble with it. It's slightly felted, and without a lot of predrafting it can be a little stubborn. Still, it's lovely, and I think the resulting yarn is going to be delicious.