Dividing My Time

When last we discussed knitting, I mentioned that I was once again working on my handspun sweater, which has been on the needles for almost a year. That's still seeing a bit of action here and there, though I'll admit the call of the wheel has been strong the past week or so. I worked on the sweater for a bit on Sunday night while watching the Tonys and got about another couple of inches done on sleeve #2 (I have no photographic proof, so you'll have to take my word for it). Although the sweater is relatively light, being knit out of laceweight yarn, it's still a bit too much to carry in my work bag, so I had to start another pair of socks for my lunch break knitting.

This is most of the cuff of the first sock in the pair. The pattern is Sybaritic by Hunter Hammersen; it's one of two single patterns I got as a freebie as part of a promotion for preordering The Knitter's Curiosity Cabinet, Volume II. I didn't realize until I started knitting just how involved this pattern is. As you can probably tell from the photo, there are a lot of twisted stitches (there are also two kinds of double decreases and some lace). What I didn't realize at first is that the entire instep of the sock has every stitch knit through the back loop, so needless to say, these will not be a really fast knit. I'm really loving the fantastic texture, though, so I'm okay with that. I have about six rounds left on the cuff of this sock, provided I don't make it longer, so at least I'll be getting to the heel flap soon.

Meanwhile, the second clue for the Through the Loops Mystery Shawl was released a day early, so I was able to knit up all of it before the end of the weekend (actually, most of it was done Saturday night).

As you can see, this clue added another, larger, lace section with slightly larger motifs and another stripe section. It's now big enough that I cannot stretch it out over my 40" needle, and I'm noticing a pretty significant reduction in my yarn. I'm guessing that the next clue will have an even larger lace section followed by stripes and that the last clue will be a lace edging. We'll see if I'm right!