Finishing What I Started

I have several friends who do not write posts on Sundays. I don't know if this is due to a religious observance, or just because they take weekends off to enjoy more time with their families... but Sunday afternoons around here tend to be pretty mellow and therefore pockets of time become available for such things as reading, writing, knitting, and other quiet activities. Everyone is home from the church service and fellowship, and the kids are now outside enjoying the last remnants of the sun before Autumn takes hold for good.

There is so much to tell you. After eight and a half months of diligently working for a couple of hours at a time here and there, I finally finished my Outlander Shawl.

It was difficult to find a good spot to take pictures of this... I ended up spreading it out on my neighbor's trampoline.

I began this shawl on New Year's Day and was hoping to get it done before the state fair, but alas I was a few weeks late for that. Oh well, next year.

I'm very pleased with how it turned out, although I do admit I made a few mistakes on this one. Laceweight yarn is not very forgiving and it was difficult to make corrections when I went wrong. This shawl was a learning project for me, and I know having finished it I can dive into another lace project with confidence that it can be done... And that was point of the entire exercise.

When one finishes a large project like this, it can be difficult to decide what to do next. As it happens, for the following week I had a rip-roaring case of "Startitis" - a condition that begins with a flurry of ideas and next thing you know, you have several new projects on the needles, all cast-on within a matter of hours... And then you have to choose which ones you really want to finish... because if you worked on them all throughout the day you wouldn't get much of anything done. So, I chose, and I finished... in the following order:

1. Evelyn's Pink and Brown Scarf and Hat (She is 3 years old now - Can you believe it?)

2. A Hat for Baby George (Isn't he adorable?! George is Molly and Keva's new baby. They came to visit us a week and a half ago.)

3. A Hat for Wendy's Baby Shower and some Bonus Booties (made from the same handspun yarn as George's hat.... the booties were almost a no-go, I had to un-ply a section of the yarn to finish them - whew!)

4. Nathan's Montessori Slippers

They were finished a week late, but the teachers didn't mind and I'm so glad Nathan loves them as much as I do.

5. Bamboo Baby Sweater

The handspun yarn in this project actually contains only a small amount of bamboo, some silk and mostly merino wool. I found some cute little faux bamboo buttons to go with it.

This lovely little sweater will be sent to my childhood friend in England who recently had a little girl if she emails me back soon with her current address... Otherwise, it's going to my 2nd cousin (also in England) who was my flower girl and is now the proud mama of a baby boy. The pattern (EZ's February Baby Sweater) was a surprisingly easy knit, and if I can get on top of all the baby knitting I'm behind on I might consider knitting this one again. As it is, I think I still have six more baby hats to go... and new babies grow very quickly.

Pocket Pete has been terribly neglected - I expect to be spinning a bit more this week.