A Wicked Case

This spring I've been struck with a wicked case of startitis.  I predicted it in February — I felt sure that after having been so good all month long that I was due to cast on about a billion things.  And I did.

But I'm trying something new this time, and finishing a great deal of what I'm starting.  It's wacky, but it works.   Long-time readers will remember the Parade of Hats back in 2011 (that was a good Christmas year).  It's like that.  I'm casting on, knitting a while (or crocheting in a few cases) and then whammo! I'm casting back off.  CRAZY.

There are a couple of things at work here, causing all this industry.

Firstly, I'm participating in a Stashdown on Ravelry.  Rules are simple:  don't buy new yarn, love the stash you're with, and oh hey!  You might get some prizes!  I'm in it more for the satisfaction of freeing up some storage space (my outrageous stash has outgrown it's shelf and under-bed containment areas) than the prizes, but it sure doesn't hurt as far as incentives go.

I'm also attributing some of my recent knitting mojo to Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.   I have been re-reading her blog from the beginning, and watching nine years of her hand-knits parade past is pretty damned inspiring.

Gauge is also playing a part.  I've been knitting things like baby sweaters out of worsted or aran weight yarn.  Turns out that if you knit small things with bigger stitches you get done faster.  This is like a revelation to me.  (Just like it was during the Time of Many Hats.  Sometimes I need to learn a lesson over and over again more than once.)

So, without further ado, here's some of what I've been up to.

First up are two tiny baby cardigans.  The yellow is newborn sized, the green is 3-6 month.  I modified this pattern to size it up by casting on 12 extra stitches (one pattern repeat) and distributing them evenly around.   The original is long sleeved, but since the babies in question will be wearing them in the South and in the summer, I thought that short sleeves were rather the way to go.

Next we have my version of the popular Hitchhiker scarf.   I've tried a couple of different things with this yarn (a scarf that was culled from the herd right before February, and then Nutkin socks) but nothing was working.   The Stashdown was having a Hitchhiker Knit Along, and I was in like Flynn.

I've also got several projects still on the go.  I'm planning a "here's what I'm working on" post for later in the week.