Many, many projects

I have not been accomplishing much lately on any one project: knitting, cross stitching, sewing, cooking, etc.  Instead, I have been dabbling in everything.  I have been spending some time in the garden and working on about four different knitting projects in addition to reorganizing closets and cabinets in our house to eliminate clutter and make things easiser to find.

On the knitting front, I have been working on sleeves for two different sweaters: the Pan-Am Jacket and Cassidy. On the jacket, I need to sew the bind off in place and then start the second sleeve.  On Cassidy, I am nearly finished with the second sleeve.  Next up: blocking and the hood. Cassidy is a KAL with a friend that I knit with on Saturdays.  I have been intentionally working slowly on it so that I don't get too far ahead of her. We have both been flirting with many other projects during the knitting of this one, so I am not at all surprised that it is taking sooo long to finish!

One of the said "other projects" is another KAL with the same friend.  I found Danger Craft's Basil the Boogie-Woogie Brontosaurus pattern via Facebook and realized that I really wanted to knit him.  When I showed the pattern to K, she wanted to drop everything and work on it, too! We set a date for the KAL kick-off and then it took me a couple of weeks to really start knitting on him.  It was a really quick and emjoyable knit.  So much so, that I may buy another of her patterns and get to work knitting more toys.  These would make great Christmas gifts to my nephews and possibly a niece, too!

The fourth project I have been trying to finish is a design project that will work into a class that I have volunteered to teach at a knitting retreat next February: steeking. I have been designing a fairisle sweater for a 16" tall doll.  Much of it I have been designing while knitting.  This means that I stop to rip quite often and then continue.  I would never use this method for an adult sweater, but knitting until the body is long enough to reach the bottom of her arms, just seemed reasonable at the time! For the sleeves, I worked out a pattern first as I wanted to make sure the clover motiff was centered on the arm. It is going well, and I hope to have it finished by the end of the weekend.