Breaking promises, and finishing stuff...

I am really struggling with the promise to myself that I would focus on the following until Christmas (or until all are done in time for Christmas):

1. Mom's sweater (I'm about 1/3 done with the back, which leaves the front and both sleeves, and the turtleneck);
2. Husband sweater (I'm about 1/2 done with the back, which leaves the front and both sleeves);
3. Secret of the Stole (just kicked off on Friday - progress pix below - but I'm through row 53);
4. Husband Socks (one done; one about 3 inches until I reach toe shaping, but I'm seriously stalled out on it);
5. Hats for Alex (done and sent off last week - yeah!). I forgot to take a picture, but it was a little yellow hat, that I hope will warm a needy baby well.


So, in the spirit of breaking promises to myself, I decided to contribute to Sockin' It To Maggie. Now, I don't think it should count against me, since it's for a good cause. And the mission resulted in my casting on the Coriolis sock from Cat Bordhi's new book. I don't have the book, yet, so I used the pattern from her Knitty Gritty appearance. I have to have this book now! I loved making this sock, despite making many mistakes. I think they were mostly well-hidden, though, so I feel comfortable giving the sock to Maggie. This was a two-day sock, something of a feat for my slow hands! The yarn is held doubled (ahhh...cozy socks - hope Maggie likes them toasty!), and they were knit on U.S. 6 needles!



Secret of the Stole kicked off last week. It's an interesting design so far, with two points at the beginning of the stole. I am through row 53. I think there are 83 rows in the first clue. I am pleased with my pace; I should finish Clue 1 by the time Clue 2 publishes on Friday. At that point, I will probably fall behind, as I did with Mystery Stole 3!

Speaking of secret stoles, I saw some progress pictures from Secret of Chrysopolis. I signed up for this one, but had shied away from it because it's authored in German. However, because it is so freakin' gorgeous, and because it is charted (yeah, universal language of knitters), and because there seem to be plenty of English speakers working on it, I am going to cast on... eventually. It will be a wonderful use of my ebony Sea Silk. Before I cast on for that, though, I think I might cast on for the Mystic Waters stole. I haven't decided on a yarn, yet. First clue posts October 24, so I have time.

Lace knitting is really addictive. The lace yarn is so gorgeous, and the patterns are stunning! I love the secret KAL's because it's so nice to get the pattern piecemeal - I feel like I can keep up. My friend Laura mentioned this the other night when we got together to knit, and I realized that she had summed it up perfectly. Hopefully this new addiction won't keep me from knitting from Victorian Lace Today, though!

I have pictures of the oh-so-cute finished Tulip sweater, finally! As tempting as it was, this ridiculous 90-degree-weather-in-October prevented me from stuffing ZEN in it for a photo shoot.


I made the matching hat from a design I found on Mistress Stash Enhancer's blog. I love that name, and the pattern was great, too, so she definitely has the Zen...Cats...Yarn approval.

And as this blog post comes to an end, we should all note that I blogged without a single ZEN picture! Perhaps I'm becoming a slightly less obnoxious mom? Or maybe I just don't have any good pictures because she's under the weather? I suspect that mentioning her at all means that I'm still an all-out obnoxious mom. I'll work on that, I swear. I would be remiss to end this without some gratuitous cute picture, so we'll leave it up to Sunny, who tonight rediscovered her cat bed (sadly, she also discovered the Tulips sweater, and decided it was a perfect cat bed, too - no pix of that, though).