so, what’s next?

As I mentioned at the end of my last post, I’ve sort of forgotten how to blog about anything other than the gansey. So, here I am, dipping my toe back into the pool of Things That Can Be Blogged That Are Not Ganseys. It feels a bit awkward, but three weeks of dedication to a single project will do that, I suppose. Also awkward is posting without any photos, but!! Thanks to the kindness and generosity of Ms. Adrian of Hello Yarn, I now have a camera to tide me over until we either get our old one fixed, or purchase a new one, for which I am totally, ridiculously grateful. Knitters are awesome folks, let me tell you. Anyway, I just haven’t made it out to acquire the necessary cable or card-reader to get the photos off of this new-old camera, so there aren’t any new ones to share yet.

So, how about we go back to the things I was working on before the Gansey came along and stole my heart (and hands) away from them? On the small project front, there were the Lightning Bug socks, the Rusalka Gloves, the Escheresque Mittens, and the Chevalier Mittens. And on the larger project front, there were the Icarus Shawl, the Bog Jacket, and my beloved husband’s sweater. And that’s ignoring some older projects which have gone into (hopefully temporary) hibernation, for which you can consult my Ravelry Project Page (I’m a bit ashamed of how many such projects there are!). Since part of my goal with the “no new yarn” resolution is to work my way through what I already have, both projects that have lingered on the needles and yarns that have lingered in the stash, I hope to finish the current set of in-progress projects, and decide what I want to do with those that are hibernating, before I cast on for much in the way of new stuff. While I don’t think I’ll ever be the sort to only have one project on the needles at a time, I have to say that the project-monogamy I committed to with the gansey (and before that, with Bohus Yoke and the Wedding Shawl) is pretty rewarding in terms of actually finishing projects, so I want to be a bit less scattered in my knitting. I’m hoping that once I work through the stash of yarn I’ve amassed over the years (either by knitting it up, or by swapping/selling/giving it away), I will be more thoughtful about the yarns that I purchase, and about the projects I actually knit up, and have a much more manageable stash and project queue.

For now, at the very least, I want to finish the two sweaters I’m working on before I cast on for another sweater; I plan to finish my husband’s sweater in time for his October birthday, and the Bog Jacket even sooner (since it is closer to completion than the husband sweater), so I can handle that wait, despite my constant eagerness to cast on for something new. I’d love to finish Icarus by October, too; it’d be perfect for any fall-weather dress-up events I might wind up going to (though in all honesty, there probably aren’t many of those. I can still dream!). As for the smaller projects, I’m less worried about totally clearing them out before starting new things, but I’d like to reduce the number of small projects I have going at any given time a bit so that I might actually finish them every now and then. I do intend to knit a few smaller projects up as holiday gifts, regardless of whether I’ve finished my current small works-in-progress. Alas, I think it’s highly unlikely that my dad’s Escher mittens will be finished by the holidays, because y’all, designing and knitting a detailed pair of mittens on size 00 needles is just a lot of work, and I can’t knit for extended periods on them because it hurts my hands a bit. They will be finished eventually, and I will be so proud to give them to my dad and share the pattern with y’all, but that probably won’t happen until sometime next year.

We’re going to be heading out to Ohio to visit family next week, and since we are driving, I have a lot more flexibility in terms of how I can pack. I plan to bring the Bog Jacket (and hopefully finish it, since it is really not that far from being done), as well as the Rusalka Gloves and Icarus (which, at least until I make it to the more complicated lace section, will make perfect in-car knitting). I’d bring my husband’s sweater, but since it is a cardigan that is knit in pieces, and I like to knit the two fronts at the same time from two balls of yarn (and do the same with the two sleeves), it seems a bit unwieldy as a travel project. It’ll be my focus once I get home.

So what’s on tap after I make my way through a few of my bigger WIPs? Well, I’d still like to knit Forecast in my heathery purple Cascade 220 during the appropriate Project Spectrum period, for sure, but that depends on my progress on the current sweaters-in-progress. And perhaps I’ll knit another cardigan for myself before the holidays, since cardigans are such useful sweaters and I’ve knit so few of them, to date. But not if it gets in the way of finishing up some of these long-lingering projects I’ve already got on the needles.

After the holidays (that is, in 2009), I’m considering doing a “Year of Yokes”, in which I knit up all of the yoked sweaters I currently have the yarn to make (which, sadly or not, depending on your perspective, is probably a large enough number to keep me reasonably busy for an entire year). I may decide this is a crazy idea, but right now it seems like a fantastic one to me. If I were to do this, would anyone be interested in Yoking-along with me? I’ve entertained the idea of starting a group blog (a la Zimmermania) to go with the Society for the Appreciation of Yoked Sweaters Flickr and Ravelry groups, but am not sure whether there’d be sufficient interest. What do y’all think?

Lastly, I realized the other day when I was looking at my blog that my sidebar links and such are way out of date. I plan to clean things up on that front later today, so please excuse any wonkiness you may see in the meantime…I promise it’s only temporary!