Short and Not-So-Short Rows

Once Rainbow's sweater was off the needles, I turned back to a somewhat neglected WIP, a sample for a new shawl design that you last saw about a month ago. I didn't work on it much after that last post about it, but I've really been knitting up a storm on it this past week, and as a result, it's nearly done.

This shawl is worked by starting with the bottom border. Then stitches are picked up along one side of the edging and short rows are used to create the body of the shawl. This iteration of the short-row section is actually the second; on the first attempt, I was using more stitches between wraps, and I quickly realized that the shawl was going to end up shallower than I had intended. I ripped back and halved the number between wraps and it's going much better now. Of course, the short rows go really quickly when they're actually short; now they take considerably longer. The nice thing is that the only thinking that's required is at the end of each short row, so for the most part it's just mindless knitting. I'm hoping to have it wrapped up by the weekend so I can block it (though the weather forecast is not looking too good as far as a potential photo shoot is concerned).

I do have some baby knitting to get started for two babies that are due next month. I'll be making 6 month-sized garments for both (I'd much rather make a gift that can be worn in the winter and thus actually stand a chance of being worn multiple times), so they should be fairly quick. The first one is a Boy Sweater in a lovely bright green Malabrigo Rios.

I have a day off from work tomorrow, so if all goes according to plan I will wind the yarn, swatch, and wash the swatch then so I'll be ready to cast on over the weekend. This sweater is for the second son of my childhood best friend. They now live in Colorado, so the kid will definitely need a cozy sweater.

The other sweater is for our next-door neighbors, who are expecting a girl. I'm planning to knit her a Helena, a pattern I knit for Rainbow and that she wore when we had pictures taken for her first birthday. It's a cute pattern and a fast knit, as I recall. I do have some Knit Picks Swish in the stash already and will have to see if I have enough of it; if not, there will be some yarn shopping this weekend.

One of these days I will get back to my Airflow. I only have about a sleeve and a half to finish, so really it should not take me very long, but you know how it is with the temptation of new projects. I definitely want to get it done before the end of stash dash, because it's likely to be my largest project completed and thus have the most yarn in it.