New Knitting Projects Frenzy

In preparation for my upcoming vacation to Washington state, I've been casting on new projects like crazy, so that I have a variety of items to work on for the week that I'll be gone.  I also picked up the Crochet One Skein Wonders book at the library to start browsing for easy crochet patterns.  My awesome aunt knows how to both knit and crochet, and she will be teaching me a new skill while we're out there.  This trip is what I like to call the Family Convergence Trip.  My parents and I will be on one flight, and then my brother will take a flight out of Vegas to meet all of us at the airport within the same hour.  It will be the first time our entire family has been together since Thanksgiving, plus the addition of the aunt and uncle we are venturing out to visit.  My uncle is the grand tour guide for the week, and from what I've heard he has lots of things in store for us.  It will include an overnight venture to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, thanks to everyone's last minute efforts on gathering passports.

The kitties have been exceptionally lazy the last couple days.  I think the heat made them even more sleepy than usual.  Which is fine by me - there were minimal Linus antics, unlike his usual "I must destroy everything" attitude, and Apollo sat next to me and supervised all of my knitting projects with only a couple attempts at using my yarn as kitty dental floss.



Apollo the big orange beast, and Linus the slightly smaller gray guy.  The resident yarn supervisors.

To start off my projects, here's the most recently finished and eagerly anticipated item (at least for me!) - the Owls Sweater is DONE!!  The buttons seemed to take ages to complete, but I finally powered through it on Friday night and knocked out the last few pairs that were holding me back.  It's definitely going on the trip, as nights in WA will likely be chilly enough to be considered sweater weather.  I love it!  I hate cold weather, but I'm actually legitimately excited for it to be cold enough to wear this all the time.  And I'm already considering yarns for my next sweater project - I'll be making the Vertebrae Sweater for the Fat Squirrel Speaks podcast knit-along, taking place September thru October.  Unless I find a yarn I fall in love with on vacation (I'm pushing for at least one Local Yarn Store stop), I'm planning on using Knit Picks Comfy, a 75/25 pima cotton/acrylic mix in the Planetarium color, a gorgeous greenish blue jewel tone color.



Sewing on 34 buttons is definitely less than thrilling.  But well worth the many patient hours!

I've also been making some slow but steady progress on the Bright Light Market Bag for my MIL's birthday.  It doesn't need to be done until the end of September, so I can take my time on it. The multi-colored yarn tends to pool, so it looks like waves of light!  I love these bags for gifts since they are so durable, stretchy, and easily washable.



It's starting to resemble a bag now!

On to the new projects!  I'm starting a Hitchhiker shawlette/scarf out of some souvenir yarn from last time I was at University of Illinois.  I love how it's turning out so far!  Mine is named the Hacho Hitchhiker, after the brand of yarn used.  This pattern is extremely easy.  Every stitch along the top edge is knit front and back to increase a stitch every row, and then every 8 rows, you cast off 5 stitches along the bottom to create the points.  It is great mindless knitting, as long as you have a row counter or scratch paper handy to keep track of where you're at.



I love the spikey effect, and the gradually tapering edge.  This will be so fun to wear!

My other newly started project is a pair of Java Socks.  I'm making mine with two shades of Knit Picks Stroll Glimmer, Peacock and Kestrel.  I'm making them mis-matching but coordinating.  The body will be a different color for each one, with the cuff, heel, and toe in the opposite color.  They will have small cables almost everywhere on them!  I'm still mastering doing c2b and c2f without the cable needle, but hopefully by the end of this pair of socks I will be a pro at it.  There's only a couple inches of progress so far.



I've had this yarn stashed for ages.  Finally putting it to use on some fun socks!

I haven't made any new progress on it, but I also have the Reindeer Tracks cowl that will likely see some action on the trip.  I've made sure all of the new projects are things that are easily transportable and easy to pick up and put down, since we will be busy doing all sorts of vacation-y things.  Each item gets its own project bag, so I can just grab a little knitting set and go!

The early starts to a toasty neckwarmer.  It's an alpaca/merino/bamboo blend!

In non-knitting news, here's the epic cookies I made this weekend.  Salted double dark chocolate coffee cookies.  Death by chocolate.  I found the recipe on a lovely food blog, Kitchen Treaty.  The only change I made to her recipe was dissolving a couple spoonfuls of instant coffee mix into the eggs to add some extra flavor.  They are soo rich, and absolutely amazing!

One of my fave cookie recipes EVER.

Happy knitting everyone!  If I have some vacation downtime, I might post an out-of-state blog update.  Otherwise, I'll be back in a little over a week!