Chugging along

I am now officially on 'school holidays' I guess you could say.  I finished my third assignment last week, and submitted it yesterday.  The second trimester doesn't start until the 9th July.  Oh my, think of all that knitting time!!!  Speaking of knitting, I'm making progress on THE LIST:

THE LIST (In no particular order, just to be clear)

• fingerless mitts for X in black
• fingerless mitts for T in green
• fingerless mitts for mum, because I forgot she wanted some for Mother's Day, or maybe these
• scarf for _________________ (shh, it's a secret!)
• shawl for mum (the original size is too small) - just an extension, not the whole thing again
• sweater for me
• socks for X (no pattern required)
• socks for T (no pattern required)
• socks for school librarian (again, no pattern required)
• socks for Deane (haven't decided yet what pattern, so many to choose from!!)
• fingerless gloves for Deane (maybe. I'm still a little annoyed about the $2 shop ones)
• armwarmers for me
• sweater for me
• kindle covers x 3 for mum, MIL and bff

I have made a start on the shawl extension for mum.  It's going to take aaaaaaaaaaaaaages....  I unpicked the bind off on Sunday at knitting group (which was awesome!!  More on that later) and knit a few rows that night.  Knit some more last night.  So far, I've only managed 23 rows.  Each row is over 300 stitches, and that number is going to keep getting bigger.  It just seems to take foooorreeeeevvveeeeerrrr.  Which is odd.  I have two skeins of yarn to add on to this shawl, each about 367 metres, give or take.  It is fingering weight yarn.  Socks are knit with fingering weight yarn.  One skein pretty much covers it for a pair.  I can knit a pair of socks in a few days, even with cables, or lace, or whatever.  So in theory I can knit two pairs in a week, if I was so inclined.  This shawl is just knitting and purling, with four simple increases every other row.  Why then, does it take so much longer to knit the shawl than it does a pair of socks?  Hmmmmm???

I have other projects I want to cast on (see above list), but feel like I have to knit this shawl first before I'm 'allowed'.  Strange, these rules we put in place for ourselves.  Even more strange, that we complain about them.  Or am I alone on this?  Probably...

Anyway, I have a pic of the mitts, although you can't actually tell that's what the picture's for:

My kids are so spazzy ;-)  And they seriously need haircuts!  They love those mitts - as soon as I cast them off and finished weaving in the ends, they went straight on their hands.  Hardly ever come off!  I think I'll have to steal them in the middle of the night to wash them soon, lest they get all gross and stinky.  I've already had to shave them.  Yes, you read that right, shave them.  You see, I made these mitts out of single ply, felted lambswool.  I knew perfectly well before I cast on that they would pill and fluff, but I didn't honestly think they'd get this much wear.  I may end up having to make some more!  But I was trying to use up scraps, of which I have plenty, and I managed to do exactly that.  I have plenty more green yarn scraps, but not so much black.  I may have to think of something else.  Or buy some, as my nephew apparently wants a pair too.  I've started a craze ;-)

With all this new-found spare time, I even did some mending yesterday - darned three socks (badly, but at least I did it, right?), sewed a few buttons, and repaired a much-worn and loved hoodie of X's.  Hope he didn't grow out of it while waiting for it to be fixed.  Yes, it's been sitting in the mending pile for that long!

Anyway, back to Sunday's knitting group.  Sunday was the official World Wide Knit in Public Day (or WWKiP).  We had a fantastic turn-out - eight people!  Considering our usual group consists of two or three people (and sometimes just one!), eight people sitting at the cafe all at once, knitting together, was fantastic.  It was such a chatty, friendly, happy bunch of people, I had a wonderful afternoon.  And best of all, when I got home, Deane had done the laundry :-)