Monogamous Knitting

I can't believe it's halfway through February already!

I hope that you all have had a fun and warm month. The weather has been very bipolar and crazy here in the midwest this winter, and last week we had a couple of days that it was in the forties and fifties, and then today we had gusty winds and snow all day. Make up your mind, Indiana!

I also hope that you had a good Valentines day if you celebrate that. My boyfriend and I don't do anything crazy for Valentines, but we did go out to dinner to my favorite sushi restaurants and bought each other yummy chocolate goodies. 

I have been very monogamous in my knitting these last couple weeks, and I have pretty much been knitting on one thing exclusively until I finish it. Because of this, it does not look like I have gotten a whole lot done, but I have actually finished two large projects, and made a lot of progress on a couple other ones. 

Finished Objects

1) I went a little crazy knitting on my Color Affection shawl. I knit like a maniac and finished the whole thing the day after my last post. I seriously knit this whole thing in 12 days, which I think must be some sort of record. Due to my slightly tighter gauge and running out of yarn (I had one foot left of my yellow yarn when I finished binding off) the finished dimensions were 74" wide by 19" deep, which is 20 inches shorter than the pattern size, but still plenty big. 

Blocking was extremely important to this shawl. Before I washed and pinned this out it was really small and wrinkly. So here is a before and after.

I used Veera Välimäki's Color Affection Shawl pattern with Knit Picks Palette in an entire ball of Turmeric, almost one ball of Clemantis Heather, and one and a quarter ball of Whirlpool, and knitted with US size 6 needles.

2) I finished Brandon's stripey socks!

These are knitted with two balls of Knit Picks Felici Sport in Stream Bed on size US 2 needles. I used Wendy D. Johnson's Sport Weight sock pattern , but I added a broken rib pattern on the top of the foot and up the leg. The second sock is slightly bigger (by about 1/2 an inch) than the first, but they fit Brandon's feet perfectly and he loves them.

Works in Progress

1) I have started working on my Striped Shawl again. 

The color of the purple has a lot more red in it than is showing up

I am using Sylvia Bo Bolivia's Sunlight Shawl for Sad People pattern  with elann.com's Peruvian Baby Silk in Parchment and Aubergine on size US 4 needles. I am striping the two colors every 12 rows. This looks much better in person, and it is so deliciously soft that I have just been snuggling it against my neck when I'm not knitting on it.

2) I also started a baby blanket for someone very important in my life. I'm not going to say who it is for, because this person has not announced it publicly yet. 

I am crocheting this with a size H (5 mm) hook and am using up some of my stashed acrylic yarns (most of in Caron Gold brand, which was discontinued forever ago) striped with Lion Brand Pound of Love in Pastel Yellow. I'm not sure how much I like it yet, but I think that once I start adding more of the colors I will like it more (the colors are not as dark as the picture is showing, by the way). 

That's all for me for now. Have a wonderful rest of your week, and I hope that you find something creative and fun to do to keep your mind off the cold.

-Nicole