making plans

I don’t have any knitting-related photos to share, so for now, I will regale y’all with photos from our garden. I have the above picture as the background on my laptop now, that’s how much I love it!

We’re in the final weeks of the semester here, so I’ve been a bit busy with all things academic. And also busy with PT, and unable to sit for extended periods of time because of my back (or stand up for extended periods of time; so basically, I’m doing this crazy sit-down/stand-up dance all day), so as you can imagine, things aren’t quite going as planned with the crafting this month. I’m trying to be really laid back about all of the plans I’ve made on the crafting front; I know I’ll get to them eventually, and seeing as this is what I do for fun and creative release, it’s really not worth getting too upset if life interferes with the schedule I’d set for myself. And on that note, here are some of the plans I have for the remainder of the year, crafting-wise (just the bigger stuff…things like socks and mittens tend to get stuck in wherever I feel like it):

• At any point:
  • Sewing: I’m not sure what I’ll wind up doing, but I want to sew something, just to get back into learning how to do it. A quilted placemat, a skirt, an apron, anything…we’ll see.
  • Crochet: Nothing fancy, I just want to be able to make little toys and put borders on things.
• May:
  • Syncopated Ribs: I want to finish this up by the end of May, so that I can clear off the needles for yet another bright green sweater!
  • Tweedy Aran Cardigan: Just keep working on it. This will probably be a long-term project, with how slowly some of the twisted stitch patterns are going for me.
  • Cardigan for Arwen: I’m hoping my friend and I can start our little two-person knitalong for this sometime in May.
• June:
  • Rainbow Yoked Sweater: I have this idea in my head, of knitting a striped sweater, where one of the stripes is grey Eco-Wool, and the other is the rainbow Noro Kureyon I’ve had sitting around for awhile. And since grey is one of the Project Spectrum colors for June, what better time to start? And what better celebration of the spectrum than a sweater with rainbow stripes?
  • Lace Blousson: I have had grey hemp yarn to knit this project (from the Summer 2004 IK) since shortly after that magazine came out. That’s four years, people! So I definitely want to start it during the June/July period of Project Spectrum. It will probably take awhile, despite the small size, given the tiny gauge at which it is knit.
• July:
  • Me-sized Gansey: Remember how I did a little Tour de Gansey during the Tour de France last year? Well, this time I want to do it again, except instead of knitting the tiny sampler gansey, I want to knit one to fit me. I’m pretty small, as far as people go, but it’s still going to be a big challenge. I’m not sure if I’ll finish the sweater during the Tour, but that’s my goal, anyway.
• August:
  • Forecast: Yes, I’m going to knit Forecast, in a lovely deep heathered purple. After pretty much the entire knit-blogging world has knit one, I’ve finally decided to give it a go. And the purple color is perfect for the Project Spectrum colors for August!
• September:
  • Imogen: I have the pattern, and I have some gorgeous handdyed blue BFL yarn to knit it with. I’m starting to really dig loose flowy cardigans (I wore a store-bought sweater with a similar design in my brother’s wedding), so I’m excited to make one. And the color of the yarn is perfect for the “water” theme of Project Spectrum.
  • Tangled Yoke Cardigan: I have some light blue Silky Wool that I want to turn into this sweater. We’ll see if I get to it this year!
• October:
  • Husband’s Sweater: I’d like to finish it in time for his birthday (the 18th). I’ll probably be knitting it from now until then, in small chunks.
  • Socks: Ok, maybe I actually will knit socks during this year’s Socktoberfest! And I’m sure I’ll still have bits and pieces of sweaters to be finishing up at this point, just in time for it to get cold enough to wear them!
• November:
  • Bohus-Yoke no. 2: Maybe this time I can actually succeed in knitting a yoked sweater during NaKniSweMo. I’m planning to knit another one pretty much just like the first Bohus Yoke (I have enough of the natural body color left over to do so), but in warm fall colors this time around.
• December:
  • Holiday gifts: This may just consist of knitting stockings for my husband and I, but we’ll see.

Yeah, yeah, I probably won’t come anywhere close to keeping this schedule, but I’m the sort of person who likes making lists and schedules and things, so it makes me happy anyway. We’ll see how it goes!