This Week's Thinking

Last Saturday, I finished the knitting part of my Crazytown Cowl, soaked it and set it on the blocking mats.  Because it's been ridiculously humid and rainy this week, it only finally felt dry last night.  So this weekend, I'll do the seaming and have another FO, which is such a good feeling.  And yesterday, The Tim took the finished pair of socks to the Post Office, so they should arrive at their destination today or tomorrow, another good feeling.

I don't know about you, but occasionally, when I finish one thing, and another project is nearly finished, rather than starting something new, I *have* to finish the other project - that's what happened with the cowl, and I think it was also because it was a good occupation for my brain, which trust me, still needs to be busy!

Having said that, it does not mean I haven't been thinking about what is next.  For whatever reason, everything and nothing appealed to me, so I was back and forth on things and frankly it was driving me nuts.  So I told myself that I needed to just decide on SOMETHING and just organize things to get started so that when I was ready to sit down and get moving, everything would be ready.

Once I told myself that, things started to fall into place.  I even knit a swatch!

Admittedly, I do not enjoy swatching, but I have learned the hard way in the past that at least in the case of garments, not swatching can mean you have wasted a lot of knitting on something that doesn't fit.  The good news is that this swatch was right on gauge, so I don't have to knit another!  Because I have mostly wool and wool blend yarns in my stash, and am trying reallyreallyreally hard to not buy yarn unless I simply must for a project, I had to think ahead to cooler weather and what yarn I had waiting for its turn.  When Pabaigh was first released, Kate Davies had a sale on yarn kits to knit it, and I purchased this yarn, which is the same color as she used in the pattern photos.  I decided to knit this now because since it is not a heavy sweater, knitting it in summer weather shouldn't be adding to any heat happening.  Plus, since it is intended to be a layering piece when the weather gets cool, I was hoping that it would be finished by the time summer moves along into fall.  We'll see how this all goes.  The pattern is mainly just knitting in the round, so in theory, it should keep my brain just as busy as it needs to be, but also mean that I can watch movies, have a conversation, or watch a podcast while working on it.

Then I decided that my next pair of socks would be the Georgia Socks, by Tracie Millar of the Grocery Girls podcast.  I have been wanting to knit some more shortie socks, and these have just a bit more happening with them than simply stockinette ones, plus a different heel for me to try.  I haven't decided on the yarn for these yet - I want to look through my leftovers, rather than use a "fresh" skein/ball.  So in the next few days, I'll be poking through the Bag O' Leftovers sock yarn that is for my Cozy Squares of Memory blanket, to see what I want to use.  I do have some things in that bag that have more than just a few yards left, so those will be the likely candidates.  I know that Lisa of Hidden River Yarns is making these and just using self-striping yarn, so depending on what/how much of that I have left in the bag, that's also a possibility.  It's funny, because I seldom actually purchase sock patterns since so many freebies appeal to me, but this pair is one of the ones that just struck me as something I really want to knit.

I'm really pleased now that I know what projects will be next.  I hope I'll like working on both of them, since my previous two projects were so pleasing.  Whatever happens, I'm sure you'll hear about it ... ;-)

I hope your last day of Spring is a good one.  It feels like the end of July here with heat and humidity, and is raining buckets today, but tomorrow and the weekend are supposed to be nice, so I'm looking forward to that!