So What's Next?

Friday is finally here (I kept thinking it was Friday yesterday, so I guess I was a little impatient for it to come!), and next week we flip the calendars ahead to March. I don't typically let the calendar dictate what I make, but I am thinking about what to make next for two reasons. The first is that yesterday I got to the ribbing of the body of my Shifty, and though I still have the two sleeves to knit after that, it feels like a major part of this project is done.

I've moved my progress keeper up to the start of the ribbing because 1x1 ribbing on several hundred stitches and 2.5 mm needles is enough to kill your will to live if you can't see that you're making progress. I've done about half an inch at this point, which means I have another inch and a half to go before I do a tubular bind-off. That all might or might not happen today, but the body for sure will be done this weekend and I'll get a start on the sleeves. I plan to make the sleeves match the body as much as possible by using the same skeins for the same number of rounds, though obviously due to the nature of handspun, they're not going to look exactly the same. I'm contemplating doing the sleeves in tandem, on two sets of needles, so that I can work each section on each sleeve without having to worry about remembering numbers of rounds.

The other reason I am thinking about what to make next is because another make-along starts March 1. If you're a regular reader, then you know that I love having the motivation of a make-along to get me to finish things. For several years, Lisa of Fibernymph Dye Works (a personal friend and a dyer whose yarn I love to use) has been sponsoring a yearlong make-along with a different theme, and this year's event is called the Make It Your Own Make-along, or MIYO MAL. For each two-month period (March/April, May/June, August/September, and October/November), participants pick a theme for their projects and then make whatever they want. I've declared my theme to be "work from pre-2022 stash" for at least this first quarter; while I'm not forbidding myself from buying yarn this year, I'm really trying hard not to and instead to use up the very plentiful supplies of yarn I already have. One new project I'm definitely going to be starting is a corner-to-corner crocheted chevron blanket for Rainbow using some sportweight acrylic yarn that was handed down to me a couple of years ago by my mother. Rainbow selected these colors:

The white will alternate with the pink and the green in different strips and then be sewn up together to form chevrons.

The other thing I'm contemplating casting on (if you can believe it!) is another May(be) Queen, in a larger size so it will definitely fit me, using this FDW Ridgetop (non-superwash) Fingering that I think I bought a year ago:

This lovely burnt orange, which I've been more and more drawn to lately, is appropriately named Ember. It's an entirely different yarn from what I used for the first one and is definitely more crisp and rustic, but I think it would look nice nonetheless. Also, now that I've knit the sweater once, I'm more familiar with the pattern and can make some adjustments to some areas that I wasn't entirely happy with the first time around. I likely wouldn't be able to wear this until next fall, but that would give me something to look forward to. Thoughts? Opinions? Do you think I've lost my mind? Actually, don't answer that -- I'm pretty sure I already know the answer!

Hope you have a good and relaxing weekend!