The first thing was a pair of socks for my father. Several years ago, I gave a pair of hand knit socks to my mother. She says she always wore them when she was giving final exams, and now she wears them in the winter (my parents live in the desert Southwest). We were having our usual Sunday evening phone conversation in mid-March and my dad suddenly asked when he could get a pair of socks, too. He had never expressed interest before! I immediately started a pair for him which are now finished. I am thinking of sending them for Father's Day, even though it will be too warm for him to wear wool socks for awhile. The pattern is Gentleman's Sock with Lozenge Pattern by Nancy Bush, which I've made twice before for BAM.
I had a bit of the orange yarn leftover (it's Lion Brand Sock-Ease in colorway Circus Peanut), so first I made a pair of baby socks. This is the Cable Rib Sock pattern by Ann Budd. I've made several pairs with this pattern.
I still had yarn left so I next made Checkerboard Gansey Bootie by Lisa Kay.
And I still had yarn left, so then I made a Teeny Tiny Holiday Sweater. I like that the sweater is pretty simple and yet the pattern is just like making a regular sweater, just tiny. If I make enough of these, they will be ornaments I give as Christmas presents to coworkers next winter. I even looked on Etsy to find some tiny coat hangers for them.
Just last week, I finished two long-term projects. The first is a curtain for my office door in the new building. The faculty offices on my floor have doors that are almost 50% window, and I don't like the idea of being on display. I usually keep my door open when I'm at work, and I only close it when I need privacy, so the big window is going to be a nuisance. I started this curtain, the Soft Linen Cafe Curtain, back in early February but I didn't work on it very consistently. It was good for Zoom meetings, though. I need to work out how to attach it to the back of the office door, and get some kind of curtain rod, but that will wait until we're allowed back to campus (maybe mid-June).
Another long project was this shawl, Erato. Romi Hill is one of my favorite designers and I have most of her small shawl patterns. It's been in my queue for eight years and I finally got around to starting it in January. After the first couple of charts, the rows became so long (and every fifth row or so is full of fiddly little cables) that I could only work on this shawl when I had at least an hour and a half of uninterrupted time. That limited progress to Sunday afternoons, so it took a long time to finish. Every bit was enjoyable, however, and the yarn was Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere (colorway Emerald Darkness) so it was a pleasure to work with. Actually, I ran out of my skein with about three rows to go and I was incredibly fortunate to find a Raveler who sold me her half skein and mailed it to me so I could finish.
I discovered a little bit of leftover blue-green sock yarn in my basket that I had forgotten about. It was enough to make the body of another Teeny Tiny Holiday Sweater, and then I used the leftover Smooshy for the arms.
I still had 140 yards or so of the Smooshy so I made Abstract Leaves Cowl. I found some amethyst beads that were leftover from something too. I enjoy beading lace. This pattern is only 12 rows long, and only has four repeats. I had just about exactly the right amount of yarn; I think there were about two yards left at the end.
Looking at all of this does make me feel productive. Like, I can barely function when I try to think about teaching, but I can at least knit stuff. I have plenty of stash and plenty of patterns in the queue, so I think that as long as I am still enjoying knitting I will probably be able to manage. I've started a new shawl, a new pair of socks, and a scarf in double-knitting. It feels so good to just sit for a couple of hours and not think about anything except the pattern. To feel the beautiful warm yarn and to see it transforming in front of me. I'm so glad I'm a knitter right now!
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