WIPsplosion averted

So, it's inevitable that startitis sets in after a big event like Stash Dash. This is especially true this year, as I made my Stash Dash 2015 all about working on WIPs and as such, cast on nothing new the whole summer. By the end of SD, I had three projects that needed their ends woven in and some seaming, and one pair of socks on the needles. everything else was done, or in deep hibernation.

Immediately upon finishing, I did a pair of fingerless mitts for my aunt out of Road to China by the Fibre Company (note to self: add this to the review list, ung it is so decadent) and then promptly made a pair of wee baby shoes out of the leftovers. But after that little spurt (a mere weekend's time) I felt all lost and fumbly. Usually this means I need to do some spinning until my projects settle themselves in their mind.

But nothing really felt settled, and instead of casting on something new, I went digging through my old hibernating projects and came out with a tricky lace shawl in very delicate yarn that I'd started in January 2014. The pattern is Madli's Shawl from the Knitted Lace of Estonia book, and I'd gotten halfway into the edging and lost myself about 20 stitches into the third or fourth row. Really not a lot of progress at all. This was one of those projects that demonstrates how much I've learned and improved over time, because not only did I not know why I had stopped, I found a mistake and dropped it down and fixed it in the lace (including dropping and recovering a nupp!), I was able to figure out where I was in the pattern and keep right on going with it, and I plowed my way through into the main body section while it had my attention. It has helped me to use the crochet hook method for nupps, which is to use a small crochet hook to knit or purl all the seven stitches together immediately after making them. Technically this makes you off by a row with that stitch, so you can slip it the next time you get there or just ignore it and move on, as it makes little difference. The hook I am using I originally purchased for beading. I think it's something like a 1mm, very small (fit through the center of an 8/0 bead), but my yarn is so thin that this is not a problem.

After I worked on the lace shawl for about a week, I suddenly cast on for a sweater. What? what is this madness? I had only just finished the  last sweater and I felt the urge to make a new one? But I did. It is a crocheted sweater called Anzen from Pom Pom Quarterly Issue 7, starts with a double-crochet-stitch yoke and then appears to be mostly half-double-crochet for the body. I immediately modified it in a thousand ways and had to rip out twice (three times now, I separated for the sleeves too soon), but it's proceeding and I'm almost into the body.

So, apparently what I crave after finishing so many things, this time, is a pile of big awkward tricky projects.

who would have thought?