Casting on

Now that all of my Christmas knitting is finished, I only have two projects on the needle at the moment. This is an all-time low for me lately. I have a few finished projects to show off once I get pictures of them.

First up is another of the "Simple Yet Effective" shawls. I knit the last one out of one skein of Noro sock yarn, and it turned out much smaller than I'd anticipated. So this time, I'm using two different, but still related, skeins of Koigu. I'm also using size 6 needles instead of the size 4 the pattern calls for. This one should turn out to be big enough.

The striping isn't as pronounced as in the Noro version, but I'm loving the changes in colors. It's a great TV-watching project because it's all knitting or purling with a few yarn overs thrown in for excitement.

I'm also working on socks for a good friend. I dragged her into the wonderland of my LYS, and she picked out the wool. I'd say what it is, but the ball band is deep in the middle of the yarn, and I don't want to mess things up by pulling it out. I do know that it is hand painted and incredibly soft. I'm calling these my "Harmony Wood" socks because the colors in the wool match those of the Harmony Wood needles I'm using. I've been toting this project around as my car knitting, but I need to bring it in the house. My friend is going to get impatient for her socks if I don't get them finished soon.

After all the gift knitting I did for Christmas that had deadlines, it's a nice switch to be able to work on fun projects at my leisure.