So much inspiration from Shannon's blog this week! She took a Carding and Blending class with colored roving. Fascinating and inspiring! It's enough to make me want to drag out the carders I never use and do something interesting with them!! LOL!!
    Sorry to say I haven't touched either wheel this week and I'm feeling very deprived!! I have bookkeeping to catch up as well as a son to help study Geo-Trig on the weekends so I haven't been able to work at finishing my Jumbo Bobbin set (groan!) and until I do, the regular bobbins of my Baynes are full, so that wheel is at a dead standstill. My Cowichan Spinner got a little too much attention from my two youngest a couple weeks ago and they stretched the leather drive band on it so I'll have to cut it and shorten it and I haven't had time to do that yet either ... You can hear me audibly sigh every time I walk past my basket of roving, I'm SO dying to get it spun so I can spin some other new stuff! Now that I know I can spin much faster than I can knit I'd like to get the jump on some ideas I have for the yarn once it's done .......
    And this leads me to the main topic of this post - projects I'm working on and projects I'm itching to start! Shannon mentioned a post from another blogster with lists of those two ideas which made me want to do the same, as a way to clarify and de-clutter my brain, bring into focus which direction I'm heading ......

Knitting Projects I'm Working On

• Old Fashioned Cardigan made with my handspun
• 3 Pairs of work socks for DH in Patons Shetland Ragg (mindless knit)
  
• Swallowtail Shawl in Fantasia cotton/viscose/silk
• Shoulder Wrap in cotton chenille

Knitting Projects I'm Planning to Start Soon

• Corrugator Scarf in 100% silk (Beaudelaire socks being recycled)
• Spiral Yoke Sweater in 100% Alpaca
• Kyla Fingerless Gloves in wool/nylon blend
• 2 Pairs of Socks for me in Wool in the Woods Twin Twist
• Dubblemossa in alpaca/merino blend
  

     Gosh! When it's all written out like that it doesn't look like much .... now if you want to see a long list I would have to write Projects I Have Patterns For But Haven't Gotten Any Further With! LOL!! This is just my knitting list. My spinning list is very very short - Everything in My Cedar Chest!!
    But seriously, it actually did take a lot of thought to narrow down the Planning To list to things I know I'll actually get on the needles and finish. The Swallowtail Shawl could be on the needles for another 6 months before I make significant progress on it and I'm not really enjoying the Shoulder Wrap because cotton chenille has almost no 'give' to it and I'm always scared I'll shred it off the core fiber if I pull too hard, or as hard as I usually do when knitting. Those two projects could be on the first list for quite a while yet! As for the cardigan, here's a shot of the progress to date:

                         

    The color transitions in the green are a bit abrupt and a bit bright, not matching exactly the shade of green in the purple but otherwise I'm content with it.  It seems like the sleeves magically appeared on their own because I find knitting in-the-round goes by lickety-split, especially when it's stockingette. Now I have to drudge through back & forth ... groan! But I'm especially pleased that it's not bulky so I'll be comfortable wearing it indoors on cool days in addition to wearing it outside when winter abates next June. LOL!! Did I mention we have about 1" of snow already? The ground isn't even frozen solid yet!
   I'm feeling kind of funny today - I finished 3 projects since yesterday, 2 of which I started yesterday! It actually gave me a bit of a boost since so many of the things I've been working on are larger, long term commitment type projects.

     

    The big blue thing is a back pad for a co-worker of my son's who is a farrier (he shoes & trims horse's feet). He will wear it under a weightlifting belt to keep his lower back warm so the muscles don't tighten up as they often do from all the bending ( OK I don't expect everyone to understand, it's a farmer-thing). I used up the last 4 skeins of Blue Blend Mar La left over from DD#1's sweater. I knit it double strand on 15mm circular bamboo so it is really thick but the texture is Beehive stitch so it is plush and lofty. It will trap lots of air but breathe too.
    The socks I started in July and they are a gift for a friend whose feet are much bigger than mine. (You can see them in a post I did back then showing how I hold my yarn continental style using 4" DPNs). They are made of Confetti 75/25 superwash wool nylon blend self-patterning sock yarn that I bought from Double Diamond Knits a long time ago. The yarn is so fine and needed 2.25mm needles it seems like I puddled away on them forever. No wonder it took until November to finish them! Now that I've started work socks for DH using my old favorite 4.5mm bamboo DPNs they are working up lightning fast by comparison!
    That last interesting thing that looks like the neck off a turtleneck is a neck sock for my DS. It blocks the wind in that marvelous gap between parka & chin. Simple 2x2 ribbing in Emu superwash 100% wool double stranded. He works outdoors as an apprentice lineman (hydro worker) and all his clothing has to be fire-retardant which means no synthetic/nylon/acrylic/polyester etc. so I was delighted when he asked me to make one from my favorite fiber!
    Every once-in-a-while it really pays to do some quick-knits. A real boost when the weather turns on you! Tonight I'm putting a second coat of finish on my jumbo bobbin set so hopefully in a week when it's finally cured I'll be spinning up a storm again! Cheers for now!