Sickness, Changes, and Casting on like crazy

I've been sick for 10 days :( Not the flu, but a head cold turned upper respiratory infection. Breathing has been hard to do the last few days, as it feels like my nasal passages have been rubber cemented together, but other than that, I feel ok. I've missed two days of work, which gave me some time to knit and spin a little, but not much, as I spent much of those days sleeping. I cast on for two projects during that time, Ice Queen and Kernel from Knitty. Ice Queen will be a Christmas gift for my mother, and I'm using yarn that has been in the stash since 2005 (when I first started knitting) and have been using as scrap yarn for years. Kernal is being knit in conjunction with the Sexy Knitter's Club current knit along. Its my second project using my hand spun yarn:

The other thing I cast on for in the last few weeks was a pair of mittens. After I finished Corwin's Spidy Mitts, Kaylee kept steeling them and putting them on around the house. Corwin came up to me and said that I had to knit her her own pair, so she would stay out of his. I am knitting the Alphamitts in Knit Picks Palette, Calypso Heather and Lilac (both yarns left over from other projects). Corwin picked out the colors to use and they look awesome!

I finally got photos of Kaylee's Jacket on here with the buttons and ties done. She loves this coat, and the matching hat, and asks for it to be put on in the mornings. Everyone who has seen it has mentioned how cute it is on her.



I've also finished Corwin's Pembrook Sweater, in time for him to wear it on Photo day at daycare. Oh my goodness, this was a knitting marathon, but so worth it. I knit the whole sweater in less than 10 days, and I say it is just about perfect. The only problem is that the dyelots of the yarn (which I had in stash forever) didn't match up, and the labels had been long gone, considering I had started and frogged many projects with the yarn over the years.

I'm trying to finish up as many small projects as I can this month so I can devote November to NAKNSWMO again. Right now I'm debating between two sweaters: Therapi and Arisaig. I have enough yarn in stash for both, and both would be challenging projects for me to do.

With Therapi I would need to dye yarn, and reading the commits on it at Ravelry, the yarn amounts on the pattern are way off, almost 50% off. I'm debating either a leafy green or a dusty rose color, and would have to dye in two batches (and alternate skeins). I'm thinking I'll overestimate by a few skeins and shorten the collar if I run out, but I'm dreaming of a nice big comfy cardi to keep in my office. The downside is that this whole sweater is knit in one piece, and would be rather cumbersome by the time I finished it.

Arsaig would be knit in KP Palette, and modified very heavily. I think the project as shown on Knitty looks sloppy and baggy, and I've seen other's project pages where they have modified it to be a pullover and I think it looks great that way. I'm thinking I'll knit in one pice, starting with a provisional cast on at the start of the lace, knit up from there, and then after I have that done, decide just how much overlap I will want, and knit the ribbing down from there. Since the sleeves are knit in pieces, this would be the more portable project for me to take to work for lunches and on car trips to the store or my parents. All changes would be documented on the blog.

Time to get back to knitting