Well, I’ve been knitting away and I must say the blanket is coming along nicely. I have 2 more colors of stripes today than I did when I took this picture, but it will give you an idea:

I’m now one large stripe and a few rows of garter (plus millions of ends to weave) away from finishing this baby blanket. It kind of reminds me of a popsicle (hence the name) and I really, really enjoy knitting  this! The pattern has just the right balance  of thought required and zoning out time, which is exactly what I look for (and aim for when I design). I only made one silly mistake along the way–and it was because I was working on it at the shop. I should never ever do that! We’re busy enough that I’ll usually need to get up in the middle of the row, and that can lead to disaster when it comes to me and my knitting. Anyway, I got turned around and then got to chatting with a customer’s husband, who was well trained enough to recognize the look in my eyes and said, “Oh no, did I make you lose count?” Heh. Anyway, it’s all fixed up and no more knitting in the shop for me, yet. Crochet, I can handle putting down. Knitting– I need to be “in the zone.”

I have to say, I always felt like knitting was just so slow– but like anything, it takes practice. With this project I realized, hey, I could knit a sweater! I mean, the blanket is as big as a sweater, so, I might have to try that out sometime soon. Of course, working with worsted weight made this go much faster than I thought it would. I think I actually prefer patterns with a touch of complexity (just a touch!) to keep the knitting interesting– but I was grateful for the garter stitch rows in between– they served as a nice breather. That and the color changes made it fun to keep working, and I don’t even mind weaving in the extra ends. I predict that I’ll raid my stash for more worsted weight yarn to make another one of these at some point in the future.

I also seamed up the toes and wove the ends in on my socks. Why that took me a week to get to, I have no clue. But, here they are, ready to go. They double as dust-bunny corralling agents, which I think means that it’s time to clean the house. Sigh. Maybe after I finish that last wide stripe on the blanket…