New projects, progress on old

I did a lot of knitting yesterday; Sunday is normally my day of "rest," which means fiddling around with new projects and watching movies most of the day. I kept thinking I should do something else, but the weather was gray and ugly, and the high was only around 30, and we had been very busy all day Saturday, so I stayed inside and rested.

I got an order of Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky, in blue flannel and ruby, late last week. I ordered it so I could make Kate Gilbert's Gifted mittens. I tried to make one--boy, is this yarn nice and soft to knit!--but I got to the thumb and didn't like the way the crocheted seam looked, and then it seemed as if the whole thing was going to be too narrow for anyone, so I frogged it. I am writing my own pattern to make the mittens in the round and hope to get the same look as the Gifted mittens, which are really nice looking.














I ran across a discussion on the internet about the neck warmer scarf, which upon further investigation I found is another name for the bow-tie or bow-knot or one-skein or tuck-in scarf. I started to make one last year, in purple, and I got disgusted half way through, thinking purple did not match anything I had, and I would never wear it, and no one else I know really likes purple, so I frogged that one. I started another one in Woolease camel, which matches the lining of one of my coats and also goes with just about anything I would wear. I can also wear it in the house, on those drafty days, and it won't droop down into whatever I'm cooking, etc. Here it is so far, modeled by the photogenic, increasingly ticked-off Wilma:













I also got quite a lot done on the boring but beautiful Hourglass sweater. I am finally finished with the shaping decreases and am ready for increases again. I worked on this while watching Desk Set, starring Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, on AMC yesterday morning. It was a very engaging movie and helped me forget about the going around and around and around that is the Hourglass sweater at this point.













In other news, I see that the new Knitty is up! I pored over all the patterns this morning, marveling at all the talented, creative people out there. Why didn't I think of the real stocking cap? I love that; I think it would look great in sock-monkey sock colors. I hope to start a Danica scarf later today--I spent most of my morning walk contemplating colors for it. And an all-black Tubey would be gorgeous.

With all this in progress and soon-to-be in progress, I'd better get busy. Christmas shopping? Can wait another day.