One Crazy Fiber Lady

I’ve hit one of those funk periods with the various knitting projects.  Digging through the wonderland of memory that is this blog, I found that I had a similar funk last year at this time.  I’ve been whittling down the WIPs but have now hit a stage where none of them are close.  Surprisingly, there are no socks on the needles right now either.  Still.

I did spend some time this weekend with Ivy.  I do love the finished look of the sweater and the Lavold Silky Wool is just a lovely yarn, I’m still on the back.  Knittng acres of stockinette in a fine gauge.  I managed to get past the armhole shaping last night, but still have some 6 inches at 8 rows to the inch and 94 stitches to the row to get through.  That’s 4,512 stitches left for the back before the shoulder shaping.  And that’s just the back.  Let’s not forget the fronts and the sleeves.  Sigh.  I’m just not feeling the love there.

Ariann at least is a larger gauge and knit in one piece, is getting close to the armhole section.  I really should have picked that to work on instead of Ivy.  Not sure why I didn’t, maybe it was that it isn’t quite the mindless knitting that acres of stockinette proves to be.  I do have to pay attention to Ariann.

We won’t even talk about the lace.  I have some 100 more edging points to do on STS.  It is hard to believe sometimes that I still have 25% of this damn shawl to knit.  Amazing how those little stitches add up. 

So should it be any surprise that I’m itching for a quick project?  Something more than a hat or gloves (which I do need to be doing before it gets really cold).   I’m itching for the speedy joy that is Banff.  I’ve already done this sweater and there are so many others in the queue.  But, it is a great little knit and I’ve wanted to do it in a softer yarn.  I just placed an order with Webs for the Lavold Chunky AL to fulfill this quickie need.  I just hope that Webs ships this out to me ASAP.  They’re usually pretty good about that and I should have it within a few days.  Good.  I’ll try and stave off the need to cast on willy-nilly until it arrives.

In the meantime, I also need to seriously think about the whole teacher gift thing again.  Each year I struggle over this.   Do I buy something?  Do I knit something?  If I knit, what do I knit them?  I have almost a whole new crop of teachers with only one repeater from last year (who also was with them the year before). The first year was booga bags. Last year was a mix of items to the various teacher ( and I just remembered what the fourth one got, a booga bag ).  I always get grief from my dad that a cash gift to these ladies is better than "just a knitted item" but a number of my knitting buddies are teachers and they say a knitted item is a great gift.  Whatever it is, it has to be a fast project now as we’re getting into crunch time now.  Suggestions are definitely welcome.

Craft on!

Edited to add:  Am I nuts to be seriously considering the Irish Hiking Scarf for a teacher gift?  I could technically knit that one out of stash easily, but then again there is that whole proximity to yarn stores and need to maintain stashus quo.  Purl is close with the Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted.  Or School Products and their cashmere worsted. It shouldn’t take too terribly long to complete.  Or there is also the No No Kitty Ribbed Hat and Scarf pattern in a bulky yarn.  While temptingly quick to knit there is this hate/hate thing I have with bulky (3st/in) yarn and 10.5 needles.