Remembering & Planning

It was kind of a rough weekend. I watched too many 9/11 documentaries and saw the Colts' disastrous season opener while the Bears simultaneously were rocking Solider Field. Therefore, I was not as productive as last weekend. I didn't have a clear idea about what I would make next, so I did a little too much pattern selection and reading and not much knitting.

To give myself some time to think, I pulled out some yarn I received as a birthday present - wool from Ireland! The original plan was a sweater, but I've got yards and yards to spare. I came across this pattern for the Hemlock Ring Blanket and thought it would be a nice challenge. Some lace to keep it interesting and knit from the center out. Good thinking work, at any rate.

Here's what it will/ should look like:

And here's my progress so far:

Hemlock-down

It's a fair start. I've enjoyed it so far and only had to rip back once.

During this little side project, I thought through my yarn selection and my various Christmas needs. I decided to try a pattern I've had my eye on for a while: Endpaper Mitts. I have colors that my mom would love, but I'm trying to figure out if I can convert the pattern into mittens for her. It might not be too hard if I can stand the slow progress. After a day and a night, this is what I have:

Mittsletoe

I'm having fun with it, so maybe the slow pace won't put me off that much. I also bound of a sock for the boyfriend that I was working on, but it's just one of two plain black socks and isn't super exciting - really, I just needed to free up the small needles for the mitts. We'll see how they knit up before I try to modify anything...