WIPs

I normally like to have one work in progress. I'm the kind of gal who likes to start something and then finish it before starting something new. That was before I discovered the Great American Aran Afgan. This is going to be a project that will literally take me years to finish. I bought all of the Plymouth Encore yarn already but it's so complicated that you need to focus on the pattern. There's no mindless knitting here. I have one square completed and one on the needles. My hopes are to work on a square in between projects so that I can get it done in my lifetime!

Next is my travel/public project. The braided cable scarf is something that I just had to have on our last trip to Lake Placid. There was a quaint yarn/coffee shop and they offered free patterns when you bought some of their yarn. My favorite color is red and this is baby alpaca - sooo soft! It's very easy to knit in public since the pattern is super easy plus it just looks cool! I think I'll send this to the Red Scarf Project people next year but I need to see if it looks unisex enough first. If not I might make one that looks manly to send with it.

Last but definitely not least is my Baby afghan for my son. It's made up of 5 different patterns for a total of 16 pieces that will be sewn together and then have a border around the whole thing. This is intended to be part of his 1st birthday present so I need to at least sewn everything together by May 5th. I've allowed myself to worry about the border later. I'm using Caron's Simply Soft because . . . well it's soft and machine washable - everything you would need for a baby blanket. I think all the yarn and a couple extra cable needles cost me less than $30 for this project. Not bad compared to about $280 for the GAAA project. I've got 14 pieces done with piece #15 on the needles. It's a filler square with just 10 inches of seed stitch so I should be done with that tonight or tomorrow night. The last piece is one of the most difficult patterns (of course) and it takes mucho concentration to knit. My hopes are to knit a little each night and eventually it will get done like the rest.

That neat little pile is all 14 completed squares. It's just amazing how all of that yarn can turn into something bigger and more beautiful. I hope that my son will appreciate all of the time and effort and love that I put into this afghan. My mother crocheted him a gorgeous blanket of 100 delicate squares for his birth so this is becoming a tradition for handmade gifts.

My ideal WIP status would be to continue working on the GAAA as my sanity can take it and then have just one other project that I can take with me wherever I go. We travel up north quite a bit and it's nice to have knitting to work on when people are snacking and watching TV after the baby is asleep. I guess having 3 WIPs isn't actually so bad. I'm almost done with 2 of them so I need to figure out what I'm going to start next!