Cast-On-Itis

I've done a self-check, and have decided I do not have the dreaded cast-on-itis, despite beginning two projects within a 24 hour period. (Three in 48 if you count the No-Sophie, but that sounds suspicious, so finished objects don't count, right?) See, I can't show you Anne's bag. Plus, quite honestly, after doing one little bag in a little over 24 hours, the second one was starting to feel like garter stitch purgatory, and there was this perfect yarn for which I'd found the perfect pattern...




Yeah, yeah, the Tofutsies sock is still unfinished too. I very nearly picked it up to finish it off, but a girl needs a travel sock, and I think we're going to town this afternoon, so there's about an hour of knitting which might get me pretty close to the completion of sock one. See? I can justify my choices. (Denial? Me? I don't know what you're talking about.)




Okay, the truth of the matter is it's getting cooler, and I was feeling selfish again. That NH Knitting Mama yarn was calling my name, and since I was emailed a .pdf file with the Dream in Color Shrug pattern I found to do the fiber art justice, I just couldn't stand it. Plus, the pattern has a definite lace element, and some of you know I've become almost consumed with trying my hand at beyond sock lace. (The yarn is NOT that shiny. It's a fabulous, matte finish in a semi-solid green. It's so soft and squooshy!)



The actual colorway is somewhere between the too shiny, too blue-ish photo above and this too yellow one. That's the first repeat of the lace pattern, and I look forward to making some serious progress on the shrug later today. It's a pleasant little pattern, with a 20-row repeat, but the lace pattern is only worked on the odd rows, and three rows within that pattern repeat. I couldn't be happier with the marriage of the yarn and the pattern, and hope to be wearing my first lace, first shrug, later this week.


I would be remiss if I didn't give Pick up Sticks a plug. I wish more retailers would offer patterns via email. Yes, I understand copyright/reprint issues, but I'm also an impatient little brat, and I am positive that this pattern wouldn't have arrived this week without the pleasures of technology. Then where would I be?! (Slogging away on Anne's bag, finishing a sock and casting on for its mate? Pouting because I'd found *THE* pattern for the yarn I most wanted to knit with, to be certain.)