Frenzied Knitting, Project Runway and Little House

I have pretty much finished all of the holiday knitting I intend to do. I have to weave in the ends on the Leaf Lace Shawl (which I think I am eventually going to be gifting to someone) and fashion some sort of a tie for the spiral shell (which is also a gift for someone down the road) but neither of these NEED to be finished anytime soon.

The next frenzied knitting "season" is will be in January for the things I need to/want to make to donate to my children's schools for their auctions. I have decided to make a Harry Potter scarf for each auction & if I do that I have to make one for my son as well. How sick will I be of Harry Potter scarves after three of those things?? They are enormous! But thankfully pretty much mindless. I have ordered the yarn - some Unger Utopia - so I will probably get started on them as soon as the yarn comes. I'm sort of hoping it will come soon so I can work on the scarves over Christmas break - it seems like perfect sitting around with the family and chatting type knitting.

In the meantime, all of the recent finished objects around here have inspired me to - gasp! - get some WIP's off the needles. I picked up the Conwy socks, finished the leg, worked the heel flap and turned the heel, got halfway down the foot and then burnt out on them again. I really love working with the hand painted sock yarn and watching the colors change and I also like working on double points (even size ones) but I think I am finding out that I dislike working teeny weeny cables on double points! I like the whole construction of a sock - the process of it, all the different techniques you have to use to create one - I just think I don't like working a pattern on the sock. I think that is why I stalled out a bit on the second sock. This is my first pair so maybe my opinion will change as I do more socks but the whole time I am working on these I am wishing I was knitting a simple ribbed sock. I'm really proud of myself for not casting on for another pair because it would amount to abandoning the Conwy socks. But I have TONS of very pretty handpainted sock yarn that is just calling to me...so as soon as this pair is off the needles I am casting on for the ribbed sock in Charlene Schurch's book. Then I can sit back and knit with my mind on cruise control, hypnotized by the colors flowing into each other as I knit round and round...that's my idea of a fun sock! :)

When I put down the socks I picked up the Shoalwater Shawl which was little more than a snippet of knitting when I put it down last time. Wow! What an easy (knocking wood), fast and fun pattern. I remember I had a heck of a time with the cast on (despite having done it once before!) but after that it has all breezed by. The pattern calls for four repeats and I'm in the middle of the second after only a few hours of knitting time. It helps that you are only really knitting a pattern every fourth row - the rows in between are all garter with seriously minimal yarn overs. This is a great pattern for beginners and I like that it forms a fabric that doesn't really have a "wrong" side. My only advice is don't try to knit this while watching Project Runway. Even the easiest lace pattern is too much when you are trying to watch a runway show and all of the backstage "drama". I was pretty much addicted to Project Runway last season and there is no point in trying to resist it this time around - I was immediately sucked in. :)

What I DO like to "watch" while I am knitting is Little House on the Prairie. Okay, I'm a geek but seriously, talk about "comfort knitting"! I probably know all of these episodes by heart, so simple, so sweet, so completely unrealistic. I love it. I am working my way through the seasons on dvd. Whenever there is nothing good on the telly I pop one in and start knitting - Little House seems to stimulate my knitting, probably because I don't have to pay any attention to the tv at all. I've seen these episodes so many times that I never have to look at the tv screen, unless there's a good catfight between Laura and Nellie of course. In fact, I'm on season seven and there has only been one episode I don't remember very well, probably because it was a completely un-PC story involving Laura and Albert posing as Native Americans, was really badly written and involved the most ridiculous wagons and Indians chase scenes I have ever seen. I doubt it got much airplay!

Back to the knitting....:)