Dust or Knit

You know those little projects that only have a few hours to go but you somehow can't bring yourself to work on them?  I know the feeling.  I have a massively cluttery dresser in my room that should theoretically have (sitting on top of it) a music box that holds all my earrings, a few pictures, and a few  of my little sheep but recently it has taken on the responsibility of becoming the new "clutter place".   I still have these aforementioned doo-dads on the dresser, but it has also become a shrine to the small UFOs and . A potholder here, a baby sweater there, a partial sock that is so covered with bracelets and watches that it now thinks it's a jewelry box.

So this week I took them down.  Not all of them, I still have 2 projects that either need to be finished or dusted, but I'll get to those.  I'd like to share with you this week's victories.

1.  The potholders.  I started these a while ago and kept them in my purse.  Then I must have taken them out with the intention of working on them, didn't, and never put them back in the purse.  After the potholders were done, I whipped up a couple ball band warshcloths and found a little tea-towel I made a few months ago, and put them together.  True, they don't *really* match, but there's enough of a theme that I was able to call the set Gift 3 of 5 of this year's Knit It Forward.  I dropped them off to the recipient, who acted very excited to have expanded her hand-made kitchen accessories collection.   I just love knitting for other knitters- they get excited over little things like potholders and are so thankful!

2. The crochet chevron baby blanket OF DOOM.  Okay, it wasn't that bad, but it was one of those black hole projects that you can work on forever and ever and never make progress.  But I did learn how to make a crochet chevron blanket, and I know that I never have to do that again.  It's a little smaller than my usual baby blankets and it's got 25% wool in it, which scares non-knitters, so it will probably go to a baby with a fiber-loving parent.  It is crocheted at Paige-Gauge though, so it will survive being barfed on, washed a thousand times, dragged around and a zombie apocalypse. I do have 3 more balls of this yarn left and after 2 blankets in this color, I'm not tired of it yet.  It will be a nice baby sweater or something...but not for a while.

3.  The Sunny Sarasota baby cardigan.  I took this super happy ball of sock yarn to Sarasota with me in April and instead of socks, decided to make the Little Hanten baby sweater by Cheryl Oberle from the Small Wonders book I borrowed from Monica forever ago. It is really easy, I think it's pretty cute, and it eliminated one more ball of sock yarn from the stash. Unfortunately, there are roughly a billion ends to weave in when you're done.  The yarn is from Knit One Crochet Two and is mostly merino with some silk and nylon, so it will have to go to a fiber-mommy too that's not afraid to put wool on her child.  I found the super-cute button at A Good Yarn Sarasota.  It's being blocked now so it will be a little less wonky on the button-band when I give it away.

I just love the multi-directional-ness of it!

I crocheted up the sleeves and sides with a crochet slip stitch.  I love how neat it looks on the inside, and it's super sturdy.  That seam isn't going anywhere.  (I did have someone once say that my sweaters have "bones" so it's not for everyone)

And the dresser is still messy, but slightly less wooly now.