12/21 yarn along: in media omnia

It seems as though I am half-way through too many projects. There has been quite a lot of desultory knitting happening here. I looked into my WIP basket the other day and was shocked to see eight full project bags.  Eight?! When did that happen?  Within each bag was a half-finished something that needed just a scant hour or two of devoted knitting in order to be cast off.  Well, that's doable!

The first project I tackled was the seashell mitts I started in October (no, September!).  After just a few hours, they were ready to keep my hands toasty.  Having finished them, I remembered why I have been moving away from single-ply superwash yarns (although they do take dye just beautifully): they pill and look tired immediately.  One difference from the pattern as written: I misread the placement of the thumb gore one tired night last week, and the patterned column is a little off-center.  No matter!  I still like them.

The next item crossed off my list was the teapot cozy that I've been mentally planning for over a year.  I had so much fun with the woolly tattoos!  I used the flower templates from Tif's cushion in Making vol. 2: Fauna on one side of the cozy. The wild abandon of the petals just works for me.  I'm still not sure about the colors--the blues, yes, but the pink and purple?  I'm not sold.  Embroidering the second side remains under consideration, although I'm not pressuring myself.  

Now that those two items are completed, I can turn my attention to my husband's Musselburgh hat, which I can only knit when he is out of the house, and a pair of socks that are so close to done.  I need to turn the last heel and knit the leg.  The next pair of socks I'll knit two-at-a-time because that second sock has been a bear.  I have big plans to make myself a pair of Christmas socks with this yarn.

Reading, too, has been sluggish this month--a little of this, a little of that.  I'm re-reading Green Dolphin Street, which was the perfect book while I was recovering from oral surgery in mid-November.  I had to wake myself to take a dose of nasty antibiotics in the middle of the night for a week, and I read about Marguerite, Marianne, and William as I sat on the cold bathroom floor, waiting the requisite ten minutes before I lay back down and trying to keep the light from waking my husband.  

The rest of my reading hasn't been for pleasure, although it's been delightful all the same.  I'm finishing the Term 3 pre-reading for my kids and reading little snippets of books to prepare my Sunday School lessons.  I'm covering the virtues and vices for a small group of middle-schoolers.  It's been a growing experience for me; I hope they're learning something, too.