Leaping for Joy

Okay, maybe that's overstating it but I couldn't resist the play on words. After all the opportunity only comes around once every four years.

I do have a lot to be happy about, though. For instance, I have found an attractive and practical way to organize some of my stash. Before my daughter, Jessica, moved back home last month I was using the dresser in her old room to store the part of my stash that wouldn't fit into the old hope chest in the living room. (Yes, a hope chest and a dresser full of yarn--do you understand now why I am on a yarn diet?) When I cleared out the dresser for her use I had nowhere to put my yarn and just piled the bags in a corner of the living room--not exactly attractive or practical. Last week, however, I purchased five cloth-lined wicker baskets to sit under the tables in the living room, one for sock yarn, one for shawl yarn, and one for sweater yarn.

Another, which sits close to my knitting corner, holds my current projects, while still another contains needles, hooks, manuals, and other knitting tools.

I tend to let my knitting projects take over the living room so it feels great to finally have a place for everything and everything in its place.

Another reason I am feeling happy is that at last I have some finished objects to show off!

First up is a pair of socks for my mother:

I'd started knitting them for myself but I didn't like the way the pattern was turning out. She said she'd gladly take them off my hands...er, feet. The yarn is DGB "Confetti".

Next, the completed pair of Barcelona Socks:

I absolutely loved knitting these socks and plan to make them again someday in a plainer yarn so that the pattern really shows off. Considering how seldom I make anything twice, that's really saying something.

And, finally, I present Rusted Root:

This sweater knit up pretty quickly--that is, when I actually worked on it! I definitely like the finished result, even though I had a couple of issues with the pattern. First, if you are expected to do K2, P1 rib, the number of stitches you are knitting should be divisible by 3. If it's not, there should be instructions to increase or decrease the stitches accordingly (fortunately, I did the math before I started ribbing). Second, I wrestled with the instructions for working the waist shaping. It wasn't that I didn't understand them, I just wasn't sure I agreed with the technique, which was to decrease one stitch on each side of the bodice every three rows, five times. I am used to seeing waist increases and decreases worked in pairs on either side of the bodice over a greater number of rows, rather than just on the back portion in such a concentrated area. In the end I gave in and did as the pattern instructed (except I added two more decreases) but if I was to make this sweater again (which is unlikely--see above) I would probably work the decreases more traditionally.

Yesterday I really pushed to get Rusted Root finished because tomorrow I am casting on for not one, but two knitalongs (am I crazy or what?). The first is a pair of socks for the March Sockdown project for the Sock Knitters Anonymous group on Ravelry. The second is The Sweet Sheep's March Sweater Madness. All I know right now is that the project uses worsted weight yarn and is knit from the top down. We get to choose from three patterns, to be revealed tomorrow. Stay tuned for details--it promises to be an interesting month!