Getting my knitting on! Maybe a little ceramics, too.

It's been far too long since I talked about something crafty here, and the Sock Summit in Portland has given me a strong kick-start into getting back into my sock knitting. Buying 5 gorgeous skeins of hand-dyed yarn will do that to a soul. What happens is you realize that (ahem) you never cast on for any of the yarn you bought at OFFF last year and that not one (not ONE) pair of socks had been completed this year! Horrors! The Anne Shaeffer yarn that pooled and stopped the sock-knitting-mojo in its tracks was transformed into a baktus scarf found on Ravelry that I finally completed after a mini-Buffy marathon. I need to get some nice modeling shots of that scarf, but it rained this evening!

With that guilt-inducing project out of the way, I finally kicked off a pair of blue, white, and seafoam green socks that I crossed my fingers and dove in on. I've been rewarded! They're not pooling! (whew!). And it's moving pretty quickly - funny how just a few more episodes of Buffy can do that for you.

I'm also getting ready for a February Lady Sweater. I have the yarn - it's gorgeous Lorna's Laces Worsted, in "Dusk", which is a greyish-lavender. If I can only finish my Pohjan Neito sweater that is still in progress. I'm stuck on the shoulders - it's been long enough that I have forgotten what decreases I've been using. And whether it's an every row decrease or not (I think it is). Garrrrh. Next time I pick it up, I need to just push through and finish the darn thing. Of course, the complicated collar is also next...Need to figure that one out.

Knitting projects:
socks, pohjan neito, february lady sweater, maybe clapotis out of some of that cashmerino? legwarmers. hat (make a couple). fingerless gloves.

So, a lot of knitting going on, eh? Too bad I'd planned to use August to ramp up my ceramics again... I have made progress on restoring the studio to something workable. The wreath, for example, was taken to the dump, along with a bunch of clay that was too dry, other construction-type debris from the yard. Generally a good cleansing - the floor of the studio is pretty much unobstructed. I need to just clear a work area, pick up some clay, and start a project. I'll need to document my progress here. For now, a clear studio is a good start.

Ceramics projects:
buttons
kimono plate?
yarn bowl (prefer with lid
long bathroom tray
little goblin heads for the yard
mugs for Heidi (I can take a hint, eventually)
apple tree planters
trays for orchids
tile for garden
something to replace the mailbox?

Edited to add a few photos...
I kinneared the Yarn Harlot. She probably appeared in about 13,467 photos during the sock summit. But who am I to miss out on an internet knitting phenomena? Not me!


I also finally got a photo of the batkus scarf I finished (and the latest haircut, styled correctly...it won't look this good again until the next time I get a trim):