Handmade Days

I've been faithfully knitting over the weekend! Knitting is a big source of relaxation and calm for me. Knitting can be a "mindless" sort of thing where I can zone out if I need to on certain projects, and it can also take up enough focus that it keeps my mind off of hard things (loneliness right now).

I finished the main portion of Ezra's mittens over the weekend, and now they're ready for thumbs and then a lining. The cream yarn below is the angora for the mitten lining.




My apologies for flash pics- it's been hard to get sunny pictures in the last few days!

The multi-colored yarn is the very beginning of a lace-weight pi shawl. I'm following the KAL on Wendy Johnson's blog for a Pi Shawl in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Elizabeth Zimmerman's birthday. This is my first work with lace-weight yarn, my first lace work and my first shawl. That's a lot of firsts, but I'm all about learning new skills this year.

Section 1 was released on Sunday and I finished it pretty easily in a few hours that day. I'm sure it gets harder (or at least takes longer) from here.

I *am* keeping track of the things I really need to get done before Brian comes home in a few weeks, so the next cast-on after I finish Ezra's mittens is for Ender's mittens, and then their hats. I'm trying to fight the urge to start my own winter set until I finish theirs.

I also have two socks in progress and I *really* need to finish the baby sweater for my neice before her birthday party in early September. Hopefully when I've cast on another 2-3 projects I'll hit the "finishing rush" that I get and finish all but 1 or 2 WIPs.