Knitting camp got me back into the knitting, but I haven't written about it in so long that I think it's only fitting that I write a little bit about my current projects. Here they are:

  1. Latvian Dreaming:

    This is the project that I am, at least theoretically, leading a follow-the-leader knit-a-long on. But it's the summer, and few people are actually follwoing along. Also, I've only written instructions until the underarm point, which I just surpassed this past weekend, so I'll be posting the next step soon. I want to put a v-neck on this sweater, and I've not yet really done a v-neck successfully, so I want to test some things out before I commit to something on this sweater. The good news for all of you who want to knit this sweater is that this is still my primary project and that I am "unstuck" and making progress.

  2. A plain V-Neck/Raglan Sweater:

    For knitting camp this year I started a plain raglan sweater to knit on while I was at camp. Needless to say, not only did I not knit on this sweater, but I didn't even take it out of the bag. It was a good thing that got be back in the mood for knitting, but it did cause me to break my "one sweater at a time rule," and is thus a little bit distressing for this reason. It's also destressing because I'm allergic to the yarn (a merino possum blend) which makes me sneeze and feel as if my face was attacked by a fuzzy monster. Furthermore it doesn't help that the yarn, which is a discontinued Cherry Tree Hill, has an inconsistent level of fuzziness, sort of like a dye-lot issue, except with more sneezing. Further distressing elements of this design: I have the sleeves left to knit at the end; the yoke shaping is always mysterious and magical when it is in progress, and I'm using this to figure out how to do the v-neck on the latvian dreaming pullover.

  3. The Never Ending Movie Sweater

    Three years ago I, on a whim, bought a 1.5 pound cone of fingering/jumper weight alpaca lambswool. I didn't do much with it for a while, but that winter I started making a cabled strip that was about 30 stitches wide on US 1 needles. I wasn't sure what it was going to be, and in fits and starts I've turned it into a sweater. The strip was continued to form a ring, which I picked stitches up around and knit the body of a sweater. It's mostly plain, and I call it my "movie sweater" because two summers ago, I lived with someone who really enjoyed going to movies. While I also enjoy going to see movies, I like having knitting, and there was enough endless stocking stitch in the round that I could do it in the dark. At knitting camp I finished the second shoulder strap. Now all that's left is knitting the plackets and collar (with lots of cables on them), and then the sleeves. On US 1s. I think because this has lingered for so long as a side project, that I've never really felt like I needed to finish, I have remarkably little stress/angst/worry over this project. Also, a fingering weight sweater? How cool is that.

  4. Lace Shawls

    I have a couple of lace shawls floating around the house that I started at various times because I had the yarn, and/or I needed to figure out something. They're low-stress and non-teleological (like the movie sweater, and unlike the other two sweaters) and it's an interesting change of pace from all the colorwork that I've been doing the past couple of years. I've not knit lace in years, and I've finally given away all of the shawls that I knit during my last lace kick, so it's time to create another little stash of these shawls.

I think the 2008-2009 knitting season will be marked by a branching out. While I think I have a couple of colorwork sweaters in the plan, I'm going to be knitting from handspun stash and there will be a couple of cabled sweaters. Though I suspect that I'll write about my knitting again before I get to that point.

That's what I'm working on at the moment.

What about you?