Lovely waves of color...

Here is the lacy scarf I have been working on. Picture #1 is it now. Picture #2 is what it was a few weeks ago and I was bored to tears. The pattern was nice and interesting but the mercerized cotton was too stiff and non-elastic to carry the give and take it needed to make the holes and waves. I knew I wanted to make a lacey scarf but didn't know what pattern to do it in. Picked up the latest "Yarn Forward" magazine and bam! there it was, near the back. Picture #1 is coming along nicely. It's wanting to curl on me so adventures in blocking is a must (note to self: must get mesh drying rack; still haven't washed that other sweater either and need this badly now!) but I'm finding I might like lace. It has enough changes to keep the attention and it's lots of fun to see the pattern emerge and see why there are so many yos, ssks, sl2k1pssos, k2togs, etc. and how they shape and move the lines in the yarn. I do not recommend knitting lace during a car trip. Tried that a few weekends ago and somehow dropped several stitches, which can be detrimental when knitting lace. I had to put it away before I was tempted to panic and throw the whole thing out the window.

I was reminded that I need to be working on AAnt's afghan; his birthday is in a few weeks. Must do. Cross-stitch birthday gift is being changed to cross-stitch Christmas gift, unless I get on a serious cross-stitch kick, something I seriously doubt. Hunky Hubby's sweater is coming along slowly but is so soft and so nice to zone out and knit. LMSS's baby blanket has been pushed to being a 1st birthday present. So I have little over a year... I think I can get up the courage in that time. How come I can knit sweaters and not bat an eye but a baby blanket is freaking me out? Must over-analyze...

LMSS also informed me that she has time saved up for her friend's long-arm quilting machine so when we are there on baby watch in another week or two we can go there and finish up whatever quilts we need to do. Very tempting. I still have a quilt to quilt (pinned together and waiting for me in a bag), SuperGirl's quilt to layer, pin, and quilt (was given to me pieced, thank goodness and I have all the materials, just haven't put it together yet), and my first quilt I started but haven't gone anywhere with it yet. It's cut out but I have yet to start sewing. I think a king-sized quilt was a huge thing to take on but I'm still going to do it. Until now, I've only done 9-patch and patchwork quilting, no actual quilt blocks, and I need to make that bridge even if it's to finish it and say "look what I did!" and never make another again. I have a feeling the cross-stitch will be a project like that too...