good knitting day...

well, i've been severely lacking in my efforts to crank out my hand knitted projects for the upcoming holiday season. yes, i realize it's already november! and i just barely finished a project today. a couple of posts ago,i mentioned that mantra for the day was "knit two, purl two" and i am happy to report that that is the project i finally finished today. it is for my little boyfriend (that's what he tells me...that he's my boyfriend) but he's actually the soon-to-be-4-years-old son of some friends of mine. his two favorite colors are...orange and green. and the minute i combined the two colors, the only thing i could think of was "peas and carrots" and so i have dubbed it the peas and carrots scarf.

this came as a result of a day devoted mainly to knitting in a mad effort to create as many gifts as possible. i'm sure i'm being overambitious, but at this point, i refuse to be pessimistic about this venture. i had minimal distractions (food, nap, and a quick trip to michael's) and so in light of the completed peas and carrots scarf, i have begun not one, not two, not three, but four, yes FOUR new projects.  and i already had one on the needles with the holidays in mind, which brings the project tally to 5.

the one on the needles, as mentioned in a previous post, utilizes a very pretty Silk Garden yarn by Noro. i hope the recipient will love it, as this color mix yarn contains many colors that this particular friend of mine likes. done in a simple garter stitch on size 10.5 needles, it is currently my most worrisome project as the yarn has a tendency to tear.

the new projects started today all use Lion Brand Jiffy yarn - from a previous shopping trip to Joann when they had the yarn on sale. as the Jiffy is a slightly bulkier weight than worsted weight yarn, it is easy to see progress, especially if done on big needles.

project #1 - "salem" pastel mix scarf - this is a very, very simple scarf, and as i write this i want to say that i'm already at 1/3 of the length that i want it to be. i'm using size 17 needles, and only 16 stitches across in a garter stitch, it really is a fast knit.

project #2 & #3 - the "basketweave" scarves - i'm using the same basketweave pattern to create these two scarves. i'm knitting #2 in a beautiful "wine" color on size 11 needles, and #3 is being knitted in a really pretty "violet" on size 13 needles. at this point, the two different size needles are only showing a slight difference in the knitted fabric, but i'm sure as time and length wear on on these scarves, i'll see a bigger difference.

project #4 - "grass green" 2 x2 rib scarf - i must confess to having a bit of a love affair with this particular 2 x 2 rib knit. i've already done several scarves in my short knitting career in this stitch - the only variance being the number of stitches used. i also did not intend to start this project today. on my trip to michael's today, i found that they were having a sale on the Lion Brand Jiffy yarn and so the "grass green" color was an impulse purchase. i have been wanting to knit a scarf for a particular friend as she lives in an area that sees snow regularly - and one of her favorite colors is green. she prefers earthy tones. and i know she'll get good use out of it. heck, i get good use out of my scarves - but maybe that's because i am scarf obsessed in southern california. even if i'm wearing short sleeves i have a scarf in case my neck gets cold. lol.

and since there are still a couple of quality knitting hours to be had before i go to bed, i'm off.