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I don’t know what it is, but I’m just into starting things left and right! Well, a girl’s gotta have choice. Something I can stick in my bag for lecture, something for tv, something that requires a little more attention…

The punk vest is almost done – just the armholes and weaving in ends (I gotta confess – sometimes I just knot and leave ’em). Problem is, the black ribbing is just killer on my eyes. I love wearing black, but I think anything that I knit with black is going to have to be a mindless, almost-no-shaping garment (ie. bottom-up raglan). The neckband almost killed me. I’ll give the armholes a shot in BRIGHT sunlight this afternoon.

Ooooh! Elann’s Highland Chunky is SO smooshy and soft. I’d buy more but…I really am trying to refrain from that. Plus since it’s a largish gauge (15 sts = 4″) it goes FAST. Here’s half a sleeve of the Urban Aran. I’m going for an early-spring jacket with this, so there’s no realy hurry, but knowing how long I take with finishing I might as well knit it now.

Finally, here’s a pile of yarn from my shelf – two skeins of Manos 106, two of cranberry Patons Classic, plus some more Patons in black and grey. What can I make with some/all (I think probably not the grey) of this? I’m thinking a little fitted top-down cardigan, either with a manos yoke or stripes. Slight problem is that the Manos is a heavier weight than the Patons. I think doubling the Patons would be overkill, so that means that the Manos sections with be tighter/thicker or the Patons sections thinner. Hmmm.

Thoughts?

Here’s a shot of my retro-prep. I actually want to get past the waist shaping so I can just knit even, round and round, without having to deal with pulling needles through and cord loops and all this and that as with the socks.

Here’s the pretty blue Regia I bought the other day. The pic’s a bit dark, but gives a pretty good sense of the colours anyway.

Now for the problem. I washed three sweaters (must have, jo sharp ribby, and the oatmeal bottom-up raglan) this week. I filled up the washing machine with warm water and added Eucalan, submerged my sweaters and let them sit for about 30 minutes, then spun out the water and laid everything to dry.

The oatmeal raglan seems to have…shrunk. Not felted exactly, and it’s not unwearable (although the neck’s a bit tight) but it’s definitely significantly smaller. It was seriously perfect before, so obviously something had to happen. Argh! Can I try re-blocking it? Stretching it out, wetting, pinning?

Who’d have thought just spinning it out would make it shrink…

Well, not much new going on around here. The socks are progressing – I’m just about to start the heel, which should be interesting. The vest is past the armhole bindoff and I’m about halfway up the armhole. Retro-prep has yet to be started, but I’ve decided on a few modifications to make to it. Oh, and I bought some new buttons for the Must Have, which should work. Then I can wear it tomorrow!

I flipped through the new Vogue Knitting at Shoppers today and was underwhelmed as usual. I just don’t really find things that I’d want to knit in that magazine. I really love Interweave, and what I’ve seen of Rebecca and Phildar. Unfortunately the pattern translations tend to suck, which is not so good.

One more thing in this rather short post – I really don’t know what to do with the 20 skeins of Highland Chunky from Elann that I bought a few weeks ago! Any ideas?