Knitting, and Thinking About Knitting

The Bruins game is on TV, the baby laptop is on my lap, and I'm typing with my right hand and scritching Carlos with my left. There are three skeins of yarn on my right, and knitting ideas battling for supremacy in my head (and on my Ravelry queue).

So, where is my knitting mind? All over the place.

I'm to the toe of my current sock-in-progress, so I'll try to finish that before leaving for the trip next Thursday. I'd be glad to bring the socks as finished clothes, but it's silly to bring something almost done as a travel knitting project. Finishing won't take long. The plan for the next pair is to use the green STR and try the Claire sock pattern, by the designer of the Skyp pattern that I may have mentioned once or twice ... in the last 18 months, as I've knit it ten times in a row. Ahem. Perfect pattern for me, what can I say? I'm not sick of it yet, just want to see if I like this other pattern as much. Down the road, I'm also thinking of trying the Down the Rabbit-Hole pattern (Rav link); one of my friends is making them and I like the look.

So that's socks! Other thoughts crossing my mind are moebius, scarf, and shawl. I bound off my test moebius at stitch and bitch last night, and was indeed surprised at how much bigger it was once off the needle. I felt pretty sure it would go over my head, and in fact it almost goes over my shoulders! I am now pondering next moebius steps, not ready to move along that line yet. Soon.

Scarf. I've been wearing the dropped stitch scarf I made in 2010 a lot lately, and in particular, instead of winding it around my neck, I've been holding it with both ends in one hand and the middle in the other, then tucking the ends in the loop, which works very well (it's just long enough). Am I explaining that clearly, or do I need to take pictures? Anyway, I like the scarf and will continue to wear it, but was thinking that something similar would be a fun quick project for a skein of yarn I loved, like the one I got at Stanley Pottery in PEI last summer. So I'm pondering pattern ideas, or just doing another dropped-stitch, or hmmm ponder ponder.

And then the thought of that skein of BFL that I got at Rhinebeck last year, the same kind as I got the year before and loved, came to mind again, and what shall I make with that? My thoughts, not clearly defined, went like this:

• probably I don't have enough for a sweater, but something shawl-like?
• only no point to the butt this time. Round or rounded?
• I liked the shoulder shaping in the Frost Diamonds pattern.

I messed around on Ravelry looking at patterns, and have settled (for now, anyway) on Carol's Clever Little Shawl, an interesting yet simple pattern. It's knit from one end to the other, mostly garter stitch but some lace to the points along one edge, a little shoulder shaping, and the ends have a sort of tube thing that allows you to tuck one end in the other, so no need for a shawl pin and hopefully the thing stays put when you wear it. Just interesting enough for me! I printed it out, and need to wind the yarn. Someday I'll live in a place with room to leave the swift set up!

Though that might be dangerous, during startitis.