knitting update and a giveaway

Today I found the first comment to my blog!

Michela is therefore going to receive the frog featured in last post: I'll give it to you when we meet next time.

I'm working on a SP14 secret project, but also multitasking on several other unfinished project.

When I return home in the evening it is so hot, that I just want to sit doing nothing, but later in the evening it is nice to knit a bit. So this week I:

- progressed on the fronts of my sweater (a drops pattern). I'm quite happy I was able to find and interpret the notes I had taken for the back, so there is hope that the pieces will match in the end.

Pity that I discovered I had done a buttonhole in a random place after I had already progressed at the point in the photo (fingers peeking out of buttonholes). This bit was not in my notes, and now it is too late to frog. I will either sew it later, or leave it there without a button (after all I didn't see it at all for several days....);

- I finally cast off a sock and immediately cast on for the second one!

I'm not happy with the cast off, it is too wonky, probably I should have kept it more tight (I used E. Zimmerman's sewn cast off, which had worked beautifully on other occasions). Maybe I'll have to do it again, but for now I'm quite happy to experiment different ways of increasing-decreasing at the toe, and knitting my first toe-up sock without a pattern.

Knitting socks in hot weather is quite pleasing, as they are so small!

- Finally a proof on my weakness: notwithstanding my declarations I couldn't resist, and cast on

a lace cowl (in super warm mohair-wool blend, a very nice wool I'm knitting up and gifting away as I'm sort of allergic to it). This new project is for a good cause, and, by the way, I have also tried my new needles, wood knitpicks (and I like them a lot, they are more slippery than other bamboos I own, I envisage a heavy use of this set!).

- Finally I also did some swatching and project dreaming, but I leave this for another post!