But I feel I have a good excuse! You see, my sweetheart came to visit me for a few days, and since my time with him is so precious, I decided to leave the computer largely unused. And I assure you it was worth it!  I do have a few pictures from Nick’s visit, but not many. We were too busy enjoying our time together to bother much with pictures. Though I regret that now!

Not a lot of knitting either, though Saturday evening was technically a knit night. I worked on my sock. I really didn’t get that much done. We were all too busy eating, talking, and laughing.

Then there is my grover jacket. I worked on this once in awhile in the quiet mornings, while I was the only one awake. I actually got a fair bit done, the shoulders are now sewn together and I’ve created the collar. I need to kitchener it together, repair some seaming holes, and I’ll be ready to start the sleeves.

On Sunday we decided to have a lovely relaxing day. We went to the bookstore so Nick could pick up a book for the trip home, and then over to The Tea Smith so that he could read and I could knit while enjoying a pot of tea. It was a most enjoyable afternoon, mostly because we’ve been imagining ourselves having an afternoon together just like this for quite some time now. I started another Sunburst Cardigan out of lambs pride worsted. The sweater is not for me, but thankfully I have more yarn in the same color since I adore it!

We also hit up the yarn shop, looking for more sock yarn for socks for Nick. Today I took a picture of Nick’s sock yarn. The two on the left I already had in stash, the two on the right are the ones he picked out this trip.

Parting is such sweet sorrow, and I have to admit to feeling quite down after his departure. I can’t say I’ve even wanted to knit. I am sure to feel back in the swing of things shortly!

What you see here is the grover jacket. One front is finished, one front is not done at all, and the back is close to being finished.

It really is coming along, even with a lost day of knitting.

Yesterday I spun. I spun the remainder of the lovely, soft, plain camel laceweight. I need to ply it yet, but the end is in sight!

Tonight? I will occupy myself cleaning for a bit, and then I’d rather like to spin. If I could get the plying done, I’d be feeling pretty darn good about myself!

I may have been a bit swift in my desire to knit the Lavender Jacket.  You see, it calls for a super bulky yarn, and it also calls for a bit of mohair to carry along with the regular yarn. So, I decided what could be better than a super bulky yarn that is already fuzzy? I chose knitpicks Suri Alpaca. Once the yarn came, I realized that I’d still need a base yarn to knit it with, so I chose some cascade 220. Once I began, I started to think I was a little hasty in my desire to knit this, as I really feel like I am knitting Grover, with it being all crazy and fuzzy and blue/purple!

Another Jayne Cobb hat that is. I finished the second one yesterday, and then decided the lopi needed to be softened up somewhat. I gave them both a good soak in a conditioner bath and hung them up to dry. Surprising how long it takes a pompom out of bulky yarn to dry!

I’ve been all focused on some mad cleaning since I have a very important visitor coming next weekend. This morning, in order to make more space in my home, I got it into my head that all my assorted sock yarn scraps needed to be re wound with the ball winder. While it did free up some space and organize them properly, I have no idea what posessed me to do such a thing. Procrastination? Perhaps. Once I was done I realized I had no idea at all where the morning had gone.  I really wanted to rewind the yarn to see what I have around for my next crazy project…which is a blanket, or a rug, you choose, done in scrap yarn. Technically it calls for worsted weight yarn, which is fantastic since I can hold sock yarn double in order to use that up as well.

300 stitches on size 8 needles, it should be a fun project to work on when I am not knitting desperately fast on projects in order to finish them.

By the way, losing a morning to my sock yarn scraps really wasn’t the worst part of the day. At swimming lessons, I learned I had ordered the wrong yarn for an upcoming sweater commission. Leaving me upset that I would have to order more yarn, and even more upset I had nothing to knit! When I got home, I managed to ruin two sets of sheets in the washer AND later when I decided to clean under my bed, I broke the bed. I might need a do over of today!

Nevertheless, I find myself in a right good mood!

Wherein you see no sock progress.  It is a busy busy day today and I am not going to have the opportunity to take pictures. Or make much progress. Suffice it to say no new knitting has been taken on, I’ve worked only on the purple BFF socks and the striped Hermoine’s everyday socks. The pictures wouldn’t have been interesting anyhow.

So instead, I am going to show you pictures of a project I finished last month, but haven’t had the opportunity to blog about. For Nick’s Christmas gift, I decided to make him a scarf. He wanted orange, so I decided to use Knitpicks Capra, the merino with cashmere content. I started the scarf a number of times, choosing different patterns, but ripped each and every one of them. Either the scarf would be too narrow, or too wide, or something would happen that I’d dislike. I finally settled on a 1×1 rib.  I knit 3 balls of capra, making a reasonably long scarf, but was then instructed to make it longer. So I purchased 3 more balls of capra, made a ribbed beanie, and knit the remainder into the scarf. The scarf is huge and long, when hanging over my neck, it hits my knees on both sides. It might need to be shortened. But it is really scrumptious, soft, warm, and squishy.

My only regret with the scarf is that I didn’t use an invisible 1×1 cast on. I did do so on the cast off. But, I regret that one side doesn’t look like the other. Next time I’ll do it right.

Back to your regularly scheduled programing on Day #23.