i'm a work in progress

i think i mentioned at the beginning of the year that i wanted to be better about blogging my works in progress, rather than just having a project appear fully formed out of nowhere on my blog. so here are two things i'm working on right now.


first...i took your advice on the wee skeins, and went for socks in the end. i'm just about done with the first color, and so far so good. i really like knitting socks two at a time! other than the two balls of yarn getting tangled, there's really nothing to it, and i feel an immense sense of relief that i don't have to worry about knitting one sock and then not feeling like knitting the other. genius!

as i started knitting these, i had to decide what order to do the colors, and i kept thinking that several combinations looked sort of like a sunset, with cooler blues and purples graduating up into vivid oranges and reds. so i'm dubbing these my sunset socks (or maybe sunrise? i can't decide). i'm eager to see how these actually look all knitted up, but in my head they look really pretty!


the other project i've got on the needles now is quite a big deal for me...my first big lace project, the swallowtail shawl! this project came out of nowhere for me...i have never really been drawn to triangular shawls before, but i saw this version of another shawl, the shetland triangle, and i was in love. but i didn't want to buy the book for just that pattern, and i equally loved the swallowtail, so i immediately cast on for that instead. i'm using some jamieson's ultra that i found at my yarn shop...i really liked how rustic and wooly it is, and the pretty pinky purple color, though sort of out of the ordinary for me, seemed just right. i'm halfway done with the second chart, and it's going fine. though the fact that each row gets longer and longer is starting to freak me out a little...

and that's it! two projects that i'm really enjoying at the moment...one simple and mindless that i can take anywhere, and one that is challenging me with a new skill. i hope to have both done pretty soon.

oh! and my weekend in anacortes! as i mentioned in my last post, we went to the what the heck? fest this weekend in anacortes, washington. i bought random junk at the shipwreck day event, and saw lots of very good bands play. it was a good time. i didn't take too many pictures, but i did snap this one outside a thrift store, that for some reason really cracks me up:


i'll be back soon, because i finally finished my endpaper mitts. finally!