Details, details

Last night was all about the scarf. I’ve decided that I think it’s nice as it is and I’m continuing to work on it. It’s a pretty safe bet that I’ll finish it tonight and be able to post a finished shot tomorrow. Thank goodness for that because I’m dying to post the bag and I just can’t do it yet.

Well, maybe just a small detail wouldn’t hurt. You still can’t see the perfect shape, or the brushed nickel button covering the magnetic snap just so. You can’t even see the way that the stripe detail transitions so elegantly onto the strap. Can you tell how proud I am? I really hope that my niece loves it.

I’ve also got a whole bunch of other small projects swirling around in my head. I joined the Lonesome Skein KAL although I haven’t been able to turn to it yet. I was looking through my stash and I found an astonishing number of lonesome skeins. Some are leftovers and some is stuff I couldn’t resist (darn that Elann.com). Here are examples of both.

These are good examples of what I’m talking about. On the left is yarn left over from a cabled scarf that was one of my first projects. Shortly after I started knitting, I took an old pattern book that had belonged to my grandmother to the LYS and asked for help. They looked at me like I had no business knitting but sold me $70 worth of yarn anyway. I left feeling very dumb and I’ve never bought yarn there since. I did finish the scarf and gave it as a gift. As I recall, it was wearable and I was proud of it at the time. I wonder if I’d feel the same way today. Curiously, I’ve never seen the giftee wear it. Hmmmm….

The more colorful example is from those yarn pushers at Elann.com. I used to have a really bad habit of buying stuff from them because it was pretty. The thought process (when there was one) was something like - quick! buy it before someone else does. There is a lot in the stash that falls into this category. Most of it is stuff that I’d rather look at than knit with.

Thinking about these lonesome skeins rationally, I see many pairs of fingerless gloves, hair wraps, and hats being gifted this year. Sadly, I’m not sure that there will be many socks gifted this year. I’m slowing down. I went back and counted all the socks I’ve made this year – twelve pairs! It’s incredibly ironic that Socktober may be the only month this year that I don’t complete a pair of socks. I’ll make up for it though.

Speaking of Socktober, I’ve been watching Lolly’s blog lately and, among all of the other great Socktober features, she’s had some great interviews with sock designers. Weren’t they fab? Did they inspire you? Did they make you want to run out and design socks right now? Well, just hold that thought till November 1. Timing is everything.