This and that

I would be in the midst of a truly terrible case of startitis now if I actually cast on for each of the patterns I've been eyeing lately. But instead I've been daydreaming about future projects while running into dead ends on current ones. Take Wurm, for example. This was a quick, easy knit (addictive even) in a lovely yarn (Sundara sport merino two). But the finished project just isn't for me. The slouchy hat style that looks good on so many people just looks odd on me. You'd really see that if I showed you one of the head-on photos that Mr. Tinks and Frogs took last weekend, but there's a good reason that I'm not sharing those shots.

Tadpole looks fetching in everything but even she can't quite pull this hat off.

So if you'd like a hand-knit green Wurm in the medium size, shoot me an email at tinksandfrogs AT gmail DOT com and I'll happily pop it in the mail and send it your way. (If there's a lot of interest I'll use a random number generator and post the winner on the blog.)

I've been really excited by Rams and Yowes lately. You see, I'm in the last row of sheep on the center section of the blanket. It's just so much fun to watch the pattern grow and I absolutely love this one.

Can you blame me? There's just one small problem: this is by no stretch of the imagination a travel project. And I have a fair amount of travel to do for work this month. Last weekend - right before my first trip - I procrastinated my way through the weekend knitting along on the sheep while putting off the decision of what to bring with me for the plane. (Come to think of it, I'm doing the exact same thing this weekend, too.)

In that case, I'd better get cracking and figure out what to bring when I have to get back on a plane tomorrow. Last week I brought this:

The bodice of tadpole's jumper is several inches longer now - I divided the front and back at the armholes while flying home on Friday. But despite the fact that I was able to knit quite a bit on the plane, I didn't make that much forward progress. I'd get half a row and realize that I really didn't want to do something that way (or, more often than I care to admit, I noticed that I had crossed the cables the wrong way for an entire row) and had to undo what I had just knit. I'll do my designing at home for this next bit, I think.

So what to knit? It doesn't help that I'm distracted by this lovely sweater in the new Wool People or this blanket and this scarf by Stephen West. I frogged my Nanook sweater last weekend so that the yarn can become this sweater instead, but even I acknowledge that I really should swatch before starting an adult size sweater. Kristen's new pattern is especially tempting but I'm not sure I have the right yarn in the stash. Perhaps a toddler sized sweater instead? Possibly this or this? I'd also toyed with the idea of colorwork mittens - that wouldn't be too fiddly for travel, right? Oh, I'd better go sit and knit some more sheep while I think about this some more.