I'm pretty happy with these. I like the pattern, I like how they match, and the handwarmer thingamabobs are really comfortable. Well, the one thumb opening is a little too large, but that's easily fixed with a little sewing up.
The scarf might have turned out better if it was a little wider, or somehow a little heavier, so it would hang better. I could add beads to the bottom. But chances are I'll just tie it anyway, and it'll still be cool.
These would have been done sooner, except genius that I am I forgot to reverse the pattern when I made the second handwarmer thingy, and ended up with two right-handed ones. Fortunately they don't take long to make, and I whipped up a properly left-handed one in just two evenings this week.
I'm pleased with my "finish one thing a month" progress, too. Well, okay, it's only really been this one month. But I still finished, and I'm still pleased.
For March I'm finally going to dive into that new Cat Bordhi sock book I bought back in November or December. I knew when I got it that I couldn't get into it until I finished my Christmas socks, but then when I had done that, for just a wee tiny period of time I lost interest in socks.
Now it's back, and I think that would be a great March project. I stocked up on some sock yarn awhile back, so I've got options.
I already know what April's project is going to be - and it's going to be a challenge. I broke down and ordered this pattern, which I saw in the Patternworks catalog and somehow became unreasonably obsessed with, and this yarn to make it with. I'm not really much of a 'shawl person,' but sans logic I just really, really wanted to make this. Although, due to it's complexity and the approach of the first event of the year (for which I need the pirate coat embroidery done), I may not get the shawl done in April, even if I start it then ... it may end up as the finished project for another month. But that's okay - my deal was to finish one thing a month - it doesn't have to be finished in the same month I started it. So if I run into a month where I'm not going to be able to finish any of my ongoing projects, I can always throw together a couple of dishcloths (I really like my handknitted dishcloths, but only have 2 so far) or sew some garb - I need that too, and the 'finish one thing a month' challenge isn't just about knitting. It can be any of my fiber obsessions.
That plan wasn't, by the way, some sort of 'competition' or 'look how much stuff I can make' thing. The whole point was, I was getting frustrated with knitting projects that drag on for years, and never seeming to have anything to show for it all. I was starting to feel like a hamster on its wheel. I was also getting frustrated because in my desire to get said long-term project done, I was hesitant to start anything else. But working on one thing for so very, very long and thinking "I don't want to start anything else till I finish this" means months or years where I can't make anything else. It also made it hard when I'd see any new project I wanted to make, because I'd be afraid to commit to it, thinking that if I did, for maybe a year or more that would be the 'only thing' I could work on.
So I decided to scrap that 'focus on one thing at a time' mentality, and add some small(er) projects into my year, to have the satisfaction of accomplishment, of actually having finished things throughout the year, in addition to my big, long-term projects. And it's helped already - as I said, I'm inordinately pleased to have completed the scarf and handwarmer thingamabobs this month. I know, most knitters do this instinctively ... knit multiple things at once. I guess I'm just a slow learner.
But I decided to include any project, not just knitting, because in the past I had tended to focus only on my knitting projects, and discount anything else I'd done throughout the year - which was kind of unfair to myself, since I make other cool stuff too, and sometimes they are quite an investment in time and skill (like the pirate coat). So now I count things like garb and embroidery projects, too.
Despite all these other distractions, Celtic Icon is coming along, too. It turns out that knitting begets knitting - just because I've added a new project to the mix didn't mean I stopped working on Celtic Icon, and in fact I've gotten more done on it this past month than in the last year. Who knew? (okay, apparently everyone but me).
I finished the first front piece recently, and started on the second front piece. After that all that's left is two sleeves, and the two side panels (one of which is half-way done). Then will come the challenge of trying to fit it all together since my pieces aren't measuring the same length as the schematic. I checked my row gauge several times on this first front piece, and it seemed dead-on to me, but for some reason the overall length of the piece was, again, several inches too long. Hopefully it'll be the same several inches too long that the back is, and hopefully the sleeves will do something similar, and it will just magically all fit together.
Famous last words of knitters everywhere who have impaled themselves on their knitting needles for projects that turn out not even remotely close to the proper size. (I know I'm not the only one who has one of those monstronsities thrown on the floor in the back of the closet, because I wanted it out of my sight so badly I didn't even have the energy to rip it out to reuse the yarn yet; someday I will, though, that was a pretty nice cotton yarn; a whole over-sized sweater's worth).
Work progresses on the pirate coat, as well. Two weekends ago I finalized the first motif with my practice piece, and I'm ready to re-embroider it onto the 'real' cuff. That is the compass rose which is going on the center of each cuff. I still need to find and/or create another motif to go around the entire cuff, to sort of frame and set off the compass, but I'm hoping to do that this weekend. I'd better ... if I don't move along on this pretty soon, I'm going to have serious issues getting it done by mid-May.
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