Currently, my knitting is focused on one thing, Sophie's birthday sweater. Progress is going good. I decided to switch from knitting in the round to knitting flat to make the colorwork a little bit easier. However, this means I will have to do more seaming. Knitting the front and back flat and the sleeves in the round is the current plan, but we'll see how it pans out. I've finished the front which, after ripping it out and starting over once, turned out pretty good in my opinion.
The three spirals are the symbol of the air nomads. The blue color is a little more purply than I would like, but is was the closest color I could find in the yarn line that I wanted to use. Ideally, I'd like to have the back finished by the end of the weekend. I think it should go faster than the front because instead of the spirals, there is only a single stripe running up the middle. This means taht I don't have to follow a chart. The ulitmate plan is to finish the entire project by the end of next weekend. Husband leaves for a golf weekend in Hayward on Thursday and alone time usually equals knitting time, but my mother has me playing in a golf tournament on Saturday. It's a fundrasier for breast cancer awareness and there is another non-golfer on the team, or I'd never be doing it.
Once finished with the sweater, it'll be back to work on the lily cardigan. I'd like to get that done, but I'm also itching to start some new projects. I'd really like to make a new purse. I've got the yarn and a couple of different patterns, but I really should finish the cardigan.
My portable project is a pair of socks, of course. I'm knitting them toe-up using the willow band stitch patter from Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks and their for my sister. She picked out the yarn, Plymouth Happy Feet in shades of green and brown, when I was visiting her in Seattle. I'm a little worried, however, because the yarn is pooling in a way that almost creates a camouflage look. I'm not sure that sister is going to be pleased with the results. But I'll keep on working on them, and if she doesn't like them, I'll find somebody that does.
After a brief trip to Seattle and a four day intensive summer class, I am just know beginning to feel like summer has actually started. And how am I celebrating the first day of true summer? Drinking coffee and watching Avatar, a cartoon. My oldest niece, Sophie is a big fan of Avatar, and I'm searching for inspiration for a knitting project for her birthday at the end of August.
Currently, I'm leaning toward a grey hooded cardigan with arrows down the sleeves and on the hood, and the symbol of the air nation on the chest. (The arrows will match Ang's markings on his head and arms.) Now, I've just got to figure out how to engineer the whole thing. I'm not even sure where to start, but calling my sister to get Sophie's size sounds like a good start. I also might try to make a flying six legged bison stuffie for Sophie as well, but I'm not sure about that.
I also searched ravelry and found a blanket design with the four element symbols. The main problem is that it is crocheted, but I think I can use the photos to create a knit chart for it. For that process, I'm thinking of modifying some double knit patterns similar to Petra's baby blanket. But I'm leaning toward the hoodie right now.
Progress on my Lily cardigan is slow going. I'm almost done with the sleeve decreases, which hopefully means that I'm almost done with the sleeves. My original goal was to have the project finished in time to wear to Silas's baptism. The date hasn't been set for the baptism has not been set, but I'm still not entirely confident that the cardigan will be done on time. (Especially if I get distracted by a project for Sophia.
Thankfully, I have managed to finally finish my clover lace socks. Knitting black socks is so boring! I'm not sure if I would have ever finished them if I hadn't had the plan ride to and from Seattle to work on them. I'm now casted on a pair of mad color weave socks (rav. link), using Three Irish Girls Adorn sock yarn in Maureen. Those are going much more quickly than the black socks.
