Heat Wave

Happy August!  I'm sitting in the local Starbucks waiting until it's time to go get my hair cut.  I'm starting to look like a chia pet.  :o)

Since my blogging mojo hasn't really returned yet, I'm forcing myself to spend the next 30 minutes writing, and I have actually made some progress on some stuff.

First, I keep alluding to design work I'm doing.  If I were you, at this point with no proof, I'd stop believing me.  But I really have been busy at it.  I have one project completed and ready to be photographed.  If it hadn't been so bloody hot here lately - heat indexes in the triple digits - I'd have had the pics taken and the pattern released.  Last thing I want to even think about doing in this heat is putting on another layer of anything.  I'm hoping I can find some guts to just do it this weekend.

I have a second larger design project I've been working on for some time, and I'm not ready to share it yet, but I'm getting very close to finalizing the written pattern.  I had no idea how much tweaking and swatching and ripping out were involved in design work.  And then you have to write it all down so’s it makes sense to someone who doesn’t live in your brain.  Because I can only think about math and tech editing for so long at a time, I have been working on some other things I can share with you.

My Endpaper Mitts are coming along nicely now that I've gotten a little better at handling two strands of yarn.  I think these are going to be very cute and they are SO soft in the alpaca.

Remember the now infamous yarn with the colorway I love?  Well, I used it for my first go at the larger design project, which came out okay, but because I realize the colorway is not everyone's cup of tea, I knit the revised version out of something with a bit more appeal to the general knitting public.  But I did have some of the favorite colorway yarn left over.  Two balls, in fact.  So, I decided since it is sock yarn, I'd make a basic ribbed sock from what was left.  Unfortunately, once I'd gotten past the heel turn on the first sock, I became bored with it and thought that maybe I would wear the socks but maybe I wouldn't and hey, maybe I should knit something shawl/scarf-like instead (KADD, anyone?).  After looking through the patterns available online and not seeing anything for free* that struck me, I decided to cast on another Glam Shells Shawl.  I've done this one before in a different sock yarn, and I enjoyed making it immensely, so I took the second ball of what was left and started it.  I have not, however, pulled out the sock that's nearly done.  Now, I'm in a quandary.  Should I continue with the shawl, or with the socks?  What do you think?

Le Sock?  Or...

Le Shawl?

I've also continued to work on the kid’s sweater for charity, inspired by a fellow blogger, Una over at Great Balls of Wool, who seems to have magical ways of knitting vast quantities of knits for charity in record time.  I'm much slower, but am still excited, nonetheless, to be putting my knitting to good use.

What are you working on?

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*I was looking only at free patterns because we are still on a budget, trying to save up our down payment for the house that we haven't found yet and/or can't build yet.  I've even been avoiding my LYS so that I don't spend any money there which is great for my wallet, but not so great for my general welfare and happiness.  *sniff*