work in progress update!

so many things on the go, the result of an attack of startitis is that you then have lingering 'lots-to-work-on-with-not-much-getting-finished' symptoms

but that's ok, because i have come to realise that i will finish everything no matter what, so if it takes a bit longer than i expected, so what (so what, so i'm being so unproductive, NO ONE WILL LOVE ME IF I DONT FINISH THINGS)

patience is a virtue right? (and a virtue is a grace, and grace is a little girl who didn't wash her face - i had a sudden attack of naughty sunday school rhymes, sorry *ahem* )

but back to the point of the post, the works in progress

first up is the Startitus Stashbusting Blanket (is there an 'S' work for blanket?)

it's made from leftover stashed Smoothie DK, an acrylic yes, but a really nice and 'smooth' so aptly named yarn. i'm not sure the colours work together quite as well as i'd originally thought/hoped, but it's a stash blanket, I AM NOT BUYING YARN FOR THIS TO MAKE IT WORK

these are the 3 colours (not my photos)

this is about 13" high and about 1/4 or so through the yarn

my TERRIBLE photog skills strike again

also that's about 1/3 of the width (or more like 1/4 probably) so apparently I've accidentally knit up the world's most oversized 'lap blanket', my skills, let me show them

i strung it on to 3 cables to see how wide it was and it stretches out comfortably over my queen size bed. why do i do this to myself? a row takes one episode of FRIENDS to get through, so about 20 minutes per row. should only be 3.45 years until i'm finished then

my other WIP is the January KAL, the Swallowtail shawl (a free Knitty pattern)

now as some of you may know, i'm not the biggest fan of pointy edged shawls. as someone who has a hard enough time getting through the day without catching my clothes on a sharp edge/doorknob/back of chair/drawer/other people, the idea of adding little pointy wispy catching devices to the edge of clothing is just INSANE, so i have decided instead to just knit the main body lace part to double the size in the pattern, then forgo the edging/border lace and just end with a simple 2 rows of st st and a row of yo's and then 2 more rows of st st and bound off super loosely.

that'll work right?

although i was looking forward to the nupps, i haven't ever done them in lace weight (with DK yarn had made me a fan of them as they pop up like magic!)

so yes, here's the in-progress shots from last night

doesn't look like much yet!

up close and personal

i'm up to the 22nd repeat of the lace pattern which is a 283 stitch row, which normally isn't that daunting since if i'm knitting in the round, that's normally around how many stitches i am! but with 2ply it seems way more, slippery and hard to control, i fail at 2ply

Susanne oh-so-helpfully posted a list of the end of row stitch counts for the first 14 sections and so i just extended past that to the 26th section which will be 339 stitches. I was going to stop there but looking at how much yarn i have left, i think i might go to more like 36 repeats

that way i'll have almost no leftover yarn, and honestly that's a good thing as i think i might be staying away from 2 ply for a little while, it's lovely, but time consuming (unless you are magic like sharon and can finish entire shawls in 5 days or less!)

ok so that's it for now, i'm feeling confident that the rest of the swallowtail will fly by since i can knit it in public/around people now, which is integral to the success of any project for me as i'm a knit it all the time or never knit it kind of girl