Start-itis

I have start-itis. I have some things I'm supposed to be doing to prep for the start of school (today is the first day I've actually started actually looking forward to that!), but instead, I've become re-obsessed with knitting. And I have been knitting my fingers off.

This is the Branching Out lace scarf I've been talking about... well, my second attempt at it. The first attempt used much more glamorous yarn but I was having a hard time actually seeing the design. So I switched to a plain wool with a consistent width. It's a bit thick for what one thinks of using for "lace" but it isn't far off from one of the pattern options, and it seems to be working. Maybe the design is not quite as clear as I'd like (after so much work and drama and ripping out of rows), but I think blocking will help with that. At any rate, when I hold it up in front of the window, I see the leaves, plain as can be, and that is making me very happy. Even if I can only do 1 or 2 pattern repeats before my brain gets tired and I start making mistakes.

But, of course, knitting lace is something that requires a lot of concentration for me, at least right now. So I've also started something nice and mindless for watching videos or listening to podcasts that I actually care to follow. This is just a one-by-one rib with some gorgeous Manos del Uruguay yarn that I bought last Christmas to make a scarf for myself after I finished knitting all the presents... of course, I was down to the wire on that, and kind of wiped out on knitting scarves in January, plus there was that lion-yellow mohair I got so obsessed with... so it never happened. I'm already really looking forward to wearing this one in the fall, though. I especially love the burgundy and gold varigation in the black yarn. (I've lost the tag for that one, and don't recal the color name, alas.)

There's only one sad aspect of working with this yarn - it came from Knitting Arts, which was the yarn store right around the corner from me. I say was, since they closed their doors this summer. (Even the web domain is up for sale, alas.) I don't know what happened, but I am very sad that they are gone, even if it's better for my budget. This is far from the last Knitting Arts purchased yarn in my stash, however - I bought a ridiculous amount of stuff at the going out of business sale, none of it with any set purpose. So I think those yarns will be popping up in random projects for some time to come.

Sidenote: that knitting.wikia.com article about Manos marks my first ever edit to a public wiki - I've used them inside corporations but have never even registered on a public one before. See what yarn obsession can make you do?

Note 2: from browsing around on Ashley Yarns it looks like the color of the black yarn might be mulled wine - my 2 skeins are much blacker but there's a lot of variation in hand dyed yarns.