What am I knitting?

I thought that today I would show you my current works in progress rather than finished objects or stash. There is actually no new stash to show, but only because of a scheduling issue :-)

I have three projects on the go at the moment and one that I will cast on as soon as I have bought the right needles for it.

My oldest work in progress is my Seaspray Rib Jumper which I cast on 22 October 2016. It is a King Cole pattern No. 3933 for a ribbed V-neck jumper/sweater. The accompanying pattern is for a jacket in the same rib. I am knitting it in King Cole Panache, a 50/50 wool/nylon blend, in the Seaspray (2071) colourway. It is designed to be knit flat in pieces, which is completely different from my first jumper, which was a top down raglan. As you will see, I have knit the back flat, but am knitting the sleeves in the round to save on seaming. I finished the first sleeve this morning and have cast on the second sleeve this afternoon. I hope to get this finished before the cold weather comes back (if it ever goes away and lets us have a summer!).  The orange yarn is a lifeline which I put in before starting the decreases.

My next oldest work in progress is my Fireworks Hitchhiker.  I cast this on Christmas Eve 2016 to be my sanity knitting over the holidays.  I am using Peak District Yarns 75/25 4ply Sock Yarn in her "Fireworks over Tideswell" colourway, which I bought at Bakewell Wool Gathering last year.  When I showed Mum my purchases at the time, she said how much she liked this yarn and the other yarn that I had bought from Peak District Yarns which was in purples and black.  However I've been thinking - I can't remember the last time I wore my first Hitchhiker - it spends its life over a hanger in the airing cupboard - so how often am I going to wear this one.  So this may just go to Mum when it is finished, on the strict proviso that she gives it back to me when it needs washing, to prevent any unfortunate accidents.  I am currently up to 39 points - this is a 425m skein so I don't think that I'm going to manage a full 42 point Hitchhiker.  I'm not even sure that I will definitely get a 40th point out of what I have left, but will do my best.  This may be a finished object next time I post.  The colours are not quite right - it is more of a yellowy green than this.

My final work in progress is my Berries Snuggle.  I've written about this in a previous post, so will just say that I am still working my way through the first 200g ball of Marble Chunky.  Once I get to the end of it, I will look at it and decide how much longer I want it to be and whether I am going to buy a third 200g ball for that purpose.  If I do, that will be going against the stash busting objective of this project, but there is no point in creating an item which is not big enough to do what you want it to do.  I have put a pen on it to give you a better idea of actual length.

The project that I want to cast on next is this one - Drops Ring of Roses Socks.  I just need to get organised and order the proper needles.

And in other news, I said earlier that there was no stash enhancement due to a scheduling issue.  Basically I missed out on Love Your Local Yarn Shop Day yesterday because I had pre-booked myself onto a Guild of One Names Studies seminar in darkest Lincolnshire and was driving a friend there.  Despite the lack of yarn, we had a great time.  Neither of us had been to a Guild event for some time and the people we knew were very pleased to see us, and us to see them.  The topic of the seminar was Occupations and the sources you can use to find out about the occupations of the people in your one name study.  There were five really good speakers, but by far and away my favourite was the first one.  This was Paul Ellis who is the stone carver at Lincoln Cathedral.  He talked to us about his job and showed us some wonderful photographs of his work on the Cathedral.  My friend and I are now thinking of going on a road trip to check it out in real life.  Despite the crappy weather while driving there and back, it was a day well spent and I came home and cracked on with some research into an individual in my study, who appears to have had three wives and 27 criminal convictions!

On the weight loss front, I lost another 1lb this week which brings me to 7.5lb in total and which meant that I got my half stone (7lb) award.  Very happy with that - the only drawback being that the lunch at yesterday's seminar was not exactly slimming friendly, so I will just have to try harder this week.

It's getting a bit late and unfortunately I have to go to work in the morning, so I will leave you here.  Wishing all the best to you and yours.