It’s confession time. I have too many wips. And some of them I am this >< close to finishing. So, I’ll list them here, and then see how much progress I can make in finishing off things in the next week or two three.

First up, Daniel’s hat:

To be honest, I only started this last night. But it has been promised for some weeks. Daniel is one of the waiters at the café I frequent, and having seen me knit there a lot, he asked if I would knit a beanie for him. We worked out an exchange (he’s studying graphic design, so will do a little work on an image for my writing website), discussed yarns and styles. While I was in Sydney last week, I found a Cleckheaton pattern book with a heap of different hats in it, and last night I found a couple of 4mm circulars and started knitting:

Yarn: Bendigo Classic 8ply. Pattern: Cleckheaton rolled brim hat

Daniel works at the café on Tuesdays and Saturdays, so my aim is to have this finished in time to drop in on Tuesday.

Next up: Lauren’s lacy fingerless mittens

I knitted the first one of these back in November – but I only had bamboo needles to hand, and me and bamboo needles are not the best of friends. I then started the second one on metal dpns, but have had a) ongoing worry that this will result in radically different tension from the first one, and b) ongoing anxiety about counting the pattern repeats correctly so that they end up the same length – the first pair I made her didn’t. After Lauren dropped a gentle hint about them when she was visiting a couple of weeks ago, I have pulled them out again and done a little more – I’m increasing for the thumb on mitt 2. I should just soldier on with them; and if it goes haywire this time, then I will redo them from scratch, knitting two at a time on two circs. (I’m working with 2 circs for the first time on Daniel’s hat).

Crimson lace mitten

Number 3: Deciduous Lace Scarf

This is the project that I’m itching to keep working on! The Romance Writers of Australia conference that I am going to next month holds a silent auction in aid of breast cancer research, and I am aiming to donate a basket including my new book and a beaded, lace scarf – this being the scarf. I’m adapting Evelyn Clark’s Deciduous Lace Shawl pattern to a simple rectangular scarf, as I wanted a border with scallop effect, suitable for beading, and I like the way the motifs in the shawl interact with each other. I will make the shawl later – for myself – but for this purpose a scarf if more appropriate. The yarn is a beautiful 50%silk, 50% merino, Carrera from Henry’s Attic.

Deciduous Lace Scarf

Number 4: Plain socks

These are my writing knitting – plain socks, nothing fancy about them, but a lovely dark blue/teal yarn that will be great for everyday wear with jeans. I ike to have a simple pair of socks on the go to knit while I’m staring at the screen trying to write. They don’t take very much concentration to knit, can be put down and picked up easily, and keep my fingers from clicking on the mouse and wandering around the internet instead of writing.

Yarn: Zitron Trekking XXL

Number 5: Bianca-inspired jacket

I started the sleeves for this while I was travelling in the outback in May. It has progressed no further since then. (The photo only has one sleeve, but I’m working both together.)

Pattern: Bianca's jacket adaptation. Yarn: Bendigo Classic 12ply

Numbers 6 & 7: Shawl-collar jacket and Fisherman’s Gansey

Okay, this and number 7 are ones that are all but finished – and have been that way for *ahem* a while. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate sewing up seams? The shawl-collar jacket needs about 20 more short rows of knitting on the collar, and then to be sewn up. I knitted the sleeves for it while travelling in May. The Fisherman’s gansey has sat, almost untouched, for about 12 months – because I need to sew the shoulder seams, then pick up stitches (almost as bad as seam-sewing, IMO) for the collar. I did, however, wash and block the pieces a couple of weeks ago. I don’t have photos of either (other then the boring ones on my Rav projects page). When will I finish these? Umm… maybe I should just break it down into small tasks. 1) Finish knitting collar of jacket within a week. 2) Sew shoulder seams and pick up neck stitches on gansey within 2 weeks. Then we’ll see how we go from there!

At least I have now finished the temporary “part-time” university job that sucked up my time and brain power for the first half of the year. Now all I have to do in the next few weeks is make significant progress on writing a book, write an academic paper, and put together a proposal for a small consulting job. Oh, and knit. And I might even make it back to the loom, sometime soon….