February IS For Finishing

I'm happy to report that the plan for February is going GREAT.  It's so awesome to have a goal and feel you're making progress.

Firstly- I have TWO charity hats knit with the scrap pile.  (As you can tell I seem to be going through a rainbow thing.)

I actually really enjoyed this little project and thinking of new ways and color combo's to knit them.  (That being said I always start these hat projects GUNG HO- and then fizzle out mid way because I'm over it.)

I even got the ends woven in on both blankets and even blocked one!

Behold!  Rainbow Swirls!

Pattern: Shadow Pattern #26 (Fig 119) from "Mosaic Knitting" Barbara Walker (this book is so awesome)
Yarn: Loops & Threads Impeccable Brights in "Red Hot", "Orange Crush", "Sunny Day", "Kelly Green", "Royal Blue" and "Amethyst"
Needle: US 9.  I was able to knit this in 15 days thanks to the big needle size
Notes: I had always wondered what a rainbow blanket would like with the colors sort of melding into one another, (ie: red background with orange foreground, moving to an orange background with a yellow forground... etc.)  I'm not sure this pattern necessarily blends that idea all that well but it does look pretty cool.

Cast on was 133 sttitches and I knit 6 rows on either end for a border.  (I wish I had done less stitches for an outside edge border (5) but it's too late now to change that.)  I will likely donate this to WCOBB but I'll wait until I have a few more blankets to send them.

The biggest 'float' in this pattern was 3 slipped stitches, and I think it still looks pretty great.  I love that you can achieve such a colorful pattern without the finicky-ness of doing a faire isle.  I really don't give mosaic knitting enough credit.... maybe I need to be thinking about that as a potential Stampede entry one year.  Hmmmmmmmmm

The other projects are also seeing some progress.  A trip to Lake Louise this weekend meant that I got a little quality sock time in and I'm nearly done sock #1.

I've also been devoting some time to the mittens.

I'm nervous about the mittens big time.  I'm worried I'm not going to have enough yarn to finish.  I would REALLY REEEEEALLY like to use up what I have and not buy more.  So, um, if you know anyone who's knit with this and has leftovers- I'd like to become their new best friend!  On the upside, the fear of running out has me frantically knitting these like a mad man!

As you can see I've kicked off a productive February and I'm hoping there will be more finished things to show you soon!