Letting things ferment

Like a lot of people, I have some UFOs (unfinished objects) lurking in my house. What? You never start more than one project at a time? You never leave something unfinished? If that's really you, I'll tell you right now - move along. We ferment here.

How do I know this? Well, Middle Daughter was filling the sink in my upstairs laundry room and left the water running - for a while. Luckily, she did catch the "raining inside the house" thing pretty quickly and the water ran to the outside wall and ran out windows. Not much damage but many things stored in The Knitting Baskets behind my Knitting Chair got wet.

While setting things out to dry, I realized that I had forgotten why I had set these projects aside. Boredom with a particular yarn or knitting style, probably. But they are not boring now! A quick review -



Item #1: Husband's brown sweater: The River Grass Gansey - I think I thought it seemed to have a lot of boring stockinette between patterns but it really doesn't. I think my experience with the Child's Aran Sweater has whetted my appetite.



Item #2: Road not taken scarf: While I still love the pattern and the yarn - I ripped it back and restarted it as a garter stitch lace project. In other words, I am working the back (even numbered rows) in garter stitch instead of stockinette. That was just taking me forever! It will still be a thin scarf so I'm not sure who it will be for.



Item #3: Gentleman's socks: My husband's birthday present - maybe I can finish them by Father's Day? My, oh, my.



Item #4: The Interlocking Balloons scarf from "Scarf Style." This is from my hand-dyed indigo experiment from a few years ago. The yarn is still so soft ("Berroco Ultra Alpaca again?" you say.) At the time, it was taking me forever to complete each repeat. Now, it just doesn't look so hard. And I love the mottled effect.

Diana over at Streets and Yarnovershas an excellent finished project



(Photo is from Streets and Yarnovers.)

- and she just completed some wicked shawls for Christmas so stop by and take a look.

I'm still chugging along with the Child's Aran Sweater. This was the final day of Spring Break around here and my un-interrupted knitting time has gotten even shorter. Despite this, I'm finishing up the shoulders.




To continue with the fermentation theme, I thought you might like to hear all about making your own sauerkraut. I've just requested Sandor Ellix Katz' book "Wild Fermentation" and this looks like a lot of fun.