Mojo and Progress

Check out this picture that I took of our birdhouse yesterday morning. By the time I got home at night all the ice was gone but it was still super cold. I was just so happy to have an unexciting and brisk ride home.

This is the sock that I started during that loooooooong ride home on Tuesday. I would've been even further along but I didn't have the first sock from this pair with me and I couldn't remember if I'd done 2 or 3 repeats on the leg. It was 3 so I got back to work on it yesterday and now I'm near the heel. Just to recap since it's been a while since I finished the first sock in this pair, the patter is Here There Be Dragons by Theresa Walunas. I really like this pattern a lot and I find it very intuitive. It's got a bit going on but it follows a logical progression so I can pick it up and put it down without getting lost. I can also work on it even when there is stuff going on around me.

It's weird to have so many projects in progress and making steady progress because through much of last year I felt as if my knitty mojo was waning. I was buying yarn and spinning and knitting a bit but I wasn't really feeling it as deeply. You know what I mean? Maybe it was all of the other stuff going on. Maybe I needed a break. I don't know but whatever the case I am back to my old obsessive ways and stuff is just flying off my needles this way and that. Whatever the reason - it's a really good feeling.

Just because it's Valentines Day and I feel like the blog needs something color-appropriate, here's a progress shot of the baby sweater that's currently on the needles. I am really enjoying the yarn - Cotlin from KP. It's soft and the color is very deep and rich. This will go to a baby in California so I think that the cotton and linen blend should be very usable.

I like this pattern, the Peapod Baby Set, and I find it very easy to follow but, with all of the Sock Madness prep going on it's been hard to find the time to work on this. I finished another test sock last night while wearing one of the ones that's already complete. This year I'm really looking forward to casting on the mates to the test socks I've knit. It's not that they're better than last year necessarily but I'm getting more into it somehow. I'm also doing more test knitting this year - 4 patterns so far and one on the needles. I really hope that the players like them as much as my family does. They've been admiring the finished socks and coveting them. I'll need to keep them locked up or they might disappear