FO Friday: The Sunday 'Things my Couch is Eating' Edition

It took stepping back to take before photos of my living room (for general housekeeping encouragement) to realize how much my knitting sprawls all over the place. It appears to be growing appendages.

I knit and mostly camp out in the corner of my couch. The cushions along the back of the couch are separate, and when correctly positioned, provide a ridiculously convenient little shelf. When jostled out of position, things fall behind the cushions. Currently, the couch is holding two t-shirts, a sweater, a sweatshirt, two shawls, a monster, a project bag, and a hat. This is after I removed the plaid shirt I'm now wearing, the lap blanket covering my legs, a ball of yarn and a stitch dictionary.

There's even more needles, books, yarn and stitch markers on the coffee table, in baskets and bins on the floor, and sprawled across my makeshift desk under the window. (And there's the boxes of yarn in front of the TV, but let's ignore those for a bit longer, shall we?)

Amoeba and I are a few days away from starting our second year in this apartment, and I remember so well what life was like a year ago. I was proud of myself for being so (relatively) on top of packing and unpacking, and there was a point last fall when our place was oh-so-charming and tidy. I'd like to get back there, and I'm really trying. 

This means that amid all of my knitting and design efforts, I'm also taking time to work on housekeeping and organization. It's getting in the way of the finishing projects, which is part of why there's been no progress on my UFO pile.

I did, however, finish my Westknits Mystery Knit-a-long Shawl, and it has received many complements, from knitters and elsefolk alike.

Pattern: Color Craving, by Stephen West
Yarn: Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in
Hoppy Blonde (gold), Arroyo (brown)
and Woodland (green)

It's my first finished object with my souvenir yarn from Seattle. (These particular skeins came from the Fiber Gallery, which was an amaaazing place.) It feels good to have finished something, and I look forward to more productivity, housework- and knitting-wise, soon!

Weekend Highlights: Duluth

Despite a bit of a hectic past week, I've managed a bit of progress on my UFO pile - one languishing FO bound off and finished, and a handful of ends woven in on other projects. However, those projects are not the ones I really want to talk about. Instead, I give you the ones that joined Amoeba and I on our weekend trip to Duluth.

First, Duluth and us in it. As much as I love Chicago, I have such a fondness for certain parts of Minnesota - it is an amazing place, particularly because a few hours' drive brings you here:

It's worth noting that there were many, many photographs taken near the lift bridge, but I spared you the pipes and lichens. If pipes and lichens (but mostly pipes) are things that you are interested in seeing, let me know, but I'm assuming I'm fairly alone in this fascination. But bridges! I'll always show you the bridges.

On to the knitting:

As soon as we got into town we plunked ourselves down in a Caribou Coffee so Amoeba could finish their sweater. (Coffee was an important step, too, but the Caribou stop was really all about the sweater.)

Pattern: Beagle, by Nora Gaughan; Yarn: Berroco Vintage in the color Chana Dal.

Post-coffee, we wandered out to do a little photo shoot for Amoeba's sweater and my newest completed design, which is currently-but-maybe-not-foreverly named Dovetail. Here's more of Beagle, and a glimpse of the behemoth that is Dovetail:

Pattern: Dovetail, by fecknom (unreleased); Yarn: Berroco Vintage.

I'm on a mission to post more frequently, both to hold myself accountable to taming that obnoxious UFO pile, and to generally flail about projects, new designs, and yarn. I hope you'll read along.