Recent FOs

My knitting has been a bit scattered since I finished the Icy Shetland Triangle in June. (I did block the three shawls, but haven't had photo sessions with them yet).

I like having knitting projects that are portable, because I knit away from home a lot - in the car (when I'm the passenger, of course), when I'm hanging with friends, and during several Wednesday meetings at work. I also want projects that are easy to memorize, because a lot of the time, I have to concentrate on something besides my knitting.

With Project Spectrum Air happening over the months of June & July, I decided to pull out the sampler blanket project that I put in the bottom of my stash bins over a year ago. Because this is the first project I ever knit, I am not into knitting it any more, so I decided to take the 25 squares I had already knit, finish off seven more, and make two baby blankets with 16 squares each. The grey & cream (& brown) colors were a perfect match for PS Air, and working on squares would be a portable little project good for summertime knitting. Except - each square requires closely following a pattern, so it turned out to be less convenient than I thought. I am happy to say I just finished sewing up one blanket, and have four more squares to knit for blanket #2.

So I've done a slew of quick little, portable projects. Many of which are actually good for Project Spectrum Water, which just started August 1. I finished the Falling Leaves Shawl:



And knit a Foliage Hat out of the same yarn (Berrocco Ultra Alpaca in Oceanic Mix) to match:



I found that the Ultra Alpaca was not as suited to the pattern as the Malagbrigo. It was way too long. After finishing the hat, I had to pick out the cast off, rip back the ribbing and a lace repeat, and then reknit the ribbing.

I knit a Scrunchable Scarf and a pair of mittens (cobbled together my own design) out of Malabrigo Chunky in the Vaa colorway to match the Foliage Hat I made for myself:



And a quick little Pro Bono hat in naturally dyed handspun from Tactile Fiber Arts:



I also was out of town for almost two weeks. I took along two one-skein lace scarf projects but was not engaged by either of them. And frankly, Hawaii is not conducive to knitting - I was either swimming, taking pictures, or reading (a lovely vacation indeed). I have already frogged the one I was trying to design and I suspect the other one will follow. Also, I frogged Birch - I knew I couldn't make it into what I wanted it to be. I do love the Morehouse Merino Lace yarn with the fern leaf lace pattern, so expect they will be paired again at some point.

So, the only WIP I have going right now is the baby blanket #2. I need a portable, easy to memorize project. Which means, ladies and gentlemen, that it is time to cast on for the Great Feather & Fan Shawl Project of 2008.