And now it is February...

Ok, so it was February when I posted my last post too, but the Steelers' Super Bowl win took precedence over commentary on the changing page on the calendar. Now that the initial six-pack hoopla has died down (at least here in my world...here in the 'burgh? Not so much. But at least I think the stupid college kids in Oakland have quit flipping cars and setting things on fire.) 

So, after my dedicated thirty-one days of finishing work in January, allow me to recap my success. At the height of my WIP count (as chronicled in my Dec. 16 blog post), I had 17 active projects on the needles. As of midnight, February 1, I was down to eight. I'm pretty happy with that! I cut the WIPs in half with knitting, plus one project relegated to the frog pond.

Now the question is...can I keep the WIP list from getting outrageous again? Heh. Time will tell. So far I've only added one new project to it, my Rivolo scarf that is for The Loopy Ewe Spring Fling KAL. The theme of this month's KAL is Knitspot/Anne Hanson patterns (as Anne will be one of the teachers at the Fling this year...cannot wait to meet her! I love her designs, and her blog is always enjoyable to read, too.) 

I decided to use some handspun for this project, and the brown/green BFL from Briar Rose seemed the perfect choice, especially as it is the only handspun of my own I have enough of for the project. And so...

Bias much? Oy. You'd think I just took the picture lopsided, but no. Thanks to my hyper-ly overspun yarn, this puppy is biasing like...something that really biases a lot. (Ahem.) The fel of the yarn actually reminds me a lot of the Ellyn Cooper Fine Merino I'm using for my Ribbon Lace scarf (although without the major spinning inconsistencies), as that is also a very highly spun yarn with a lot of bounce. I had the hardest time finding a project that yarn would work for. The Ribbon Lace scarf is biasing a little as well, but not nearly as bad as this. However, hope springs eternal as the plan is to give it a good soak and block the crap out of it when its done. Either way, it's my first project being made entirely out of my own handspun, and of that I am proud! I do love the colors...it looks so mossy. The texture is making the pattern a little hard to discern at the moment, but again...a good blocking should help that out in the end. 

I decided to rip the (whole two rows) of that other two-row scarf I was tempted to make. My main motivation for making it was that someone I see occasionally commented enthusiastically on my two-row scarf, and so I felt instantly compelled to make one for her. The thing is? I hardly know this person. I see her now and again, and while I'm all about being generous with the knit goods, I have no way of even knowing if I'll see her again while it is scarf-wearing weather. So. No scarf. I didn't have good colors for it for this person anyway. 

So, in addition to Rivolo, I've been working on my next afghan swap square, which is due out by 2/14 (no pictures of that yet as it is a surprise), and during the Super Bowl, since I needed mindless knitting so I could concentrate on the game, I worked on my Swiftly Turning Afghan, which has been languishing in the corner for quite a while.

I do love this afghan, just a simply garter stitch, back-and-forth thing, but it is that same simple garter stitch (on big needles) that gets old fast, so I don't end up working on it a lot. Plus, since it is so long and it takes so much time to get through one row, it feels like I knit and knit but it never grows! I did probably add three or four inches to it during the game, but there's still a long way to go. Still, I look forward to the day when it is done and I can curl up in it because I love the colors and it is so soft and warm! (And for the record, I'm using some of my own handspun as one of the yarns in this, too!)