I'd been in a cross stitching mood for a bit, so pulled out a barely-started kit of Christmas ornaments on perforated paper. Out of the four cross stitches in my sidebar, this one requires the least work, so I'm hoping to finish it this year and it will be my go-to project whenever I get the stitching bug. It's not all that far along, with two almost finished ornaments and another one barely started:
I keep a project in my traveling bag for, well, traveling, as well as reading papers and during lunch at work. Since my Lady Scarlet gloves are finished, I started some Rhiannon Socks, a gorgeous cabled design by Cookie A. I'm doing this project as part of 12 in 2011, having both the yarn and pattern in my stash, and for the Loopy Ewe Challenge, so my goal is to finish by March 31. I'd also like to wear them with a skirt during the Purdue Open House I'm attending in early March, and I'll have the plane ride there to attempt to finish, but with the rate thus far, I'm not sure I'll make it! These socks are absolutely stunning but quite fiddly. I'm partway through the cuff of the first one, and because it's a foldover cuff, you're cabling on the wrong side, so it's not all that pretty to look at while knitting thus far. Also, with 200 stitch rows, it's not growing all that quickly!
In addition to that one, I decided to make Lee a Portal Companion Cube for Valentine's Day. I started that one during a day of presentations, and of course I'm not working on it at home, so I'm hoping to get it done while reading papers this week. At least the components. Lee has to work on Saturday while I don't, so I can always finish it up then. I would like it to be nearly finished before then so I can bake a cake as well. It's going fairly quickly, so it is a very reasonable goal. As long as the seaming doesn't kill me, like it typically does for stuffed things!
I'm trying to get Christmas presents done a little at a time this year, so I've already purchased just about all of the yarn I believe I'll need, and started the first of many presents. The goal for 2011 was to get two Christmas gifts done per month, one 100% stash project for 12 in 2011, and one WIP for LSG11ty. In January, I failed on the Christmas gift front, though I did finish three LSG projects and two for 12 in 2011 so I'm ahead of the game overall even if I'm behind in one specific category. Everyone's getting illusion projects this year, scarves for my sisters, wall hangings for my aunts, and I'm starting with the scarves. I have the first scarf almost halfway finished and I've perfected my left-handed purling thanks to the Norwegian purl, yay! It's the Dark Mark Scarf, and coming out very well if I do say so myself:
Finally, my evening project is the huuuuuuuuge blanket I've mentioned quite a few times before, but have not yet photographed in its final design permutation. The Norwegian purl is helping me to do the back-and-forth stranded knitting required on many rows. Why back and forth, why did I not just work this in the round and steek? Well, it's the intarsia I'm using on ever-so-much of it. Sure, you can in fact do intarsia in the round if you need to, by doing sections back and forth or fiddling with your yarn, but that's only useful if you're making something like a hat that you don't want to seam but want an intarsia motif. The level of intarsia going on in this project meant that the best method was back-and-forth, like it or not for the stranded areas. It is turning out great and will be just stunning when blocked:
The back, in all its glory:
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