A Labor of Love

I have mixed emotions about the coming and going of Labor Day. For so many of us, Labor Day symbolizes the end of summer, the slow slide into shorter days and the end of summertime activities. For knitters, it is the beginning of the time of year where we can turn our attentions to sweaters and hopefully as the temperatures start to moderate we even welcome the thought of wool in our hands and laps again. As I thought about Labor Day, I realized for me what a labor of love knitting has become. I have always enjoyed knitting, but I have such a renewed enthusiasm for my craft and a renewed commitment to getting to the needles as often as life allows.

This year we did not go away for the weekend so I was able to focus on knitting and progress was made on all fronts. I finished the button bands and the neck band on the Dayflower cardigan. I blocked the fronts and the back and all looks really good. I have to block the little cap sleeves which I hope to do tonight and then I just have to set in the sleeves and sew up the side seams. Should be easy enough! I also worked on the Spring Forward Sock and I am in the process of shaping the toe – so that one should be off the needles tonight. I also made another Vine Lace baby hat in an effort to use up the last of the Grace that I have in my stash. This time I made the largest version which is done on size four needles and I guess with experience I have gotten the hang of the pattern because I did not experience all of the issues that I did with my first attempts. I have enough Grace left to probably make three more hats which is fine. They are little projects that make good fillers when I need a break from my other projects.

I also cast on for a new lace/scarf project this weekend. I think I mentioned in the past that I was thinking about participating in the Juno Regina KAL that Manic Purl was hosting. This weekend while listening to her latest podcast she went through the process for the set up rows and I thought – I think I can now get through this and sure enough – I started knitting and this time I didn’t have any problems getting through the set up. I have made it through Chart 1 and I am about to start the second repeat of Chart 2. I am using Knit Picks Shadow from the stash and this will also be a filler project because Labor Day also symbolizes the start of “The Finishing of UFO’s” month.

I am really excited about getting to work on some of my WIP and although I am carrying some August WIP into the new month, I still think I can make some great progress. After the little bit of finishing left on the Dayflower, my Noro Butterfly will be first up. I really have so little left to do on this project, but it is at the make or break point – will the sleeves be too long. After listening to Jasmin on Knitmore Girls, I have decided in the future to reverse engineer my sleeves and work from the top down to avoid the whole sleeve length issue. I know I made the sleeves shorter than the pattern called for so hopefully that will be good enough and if not, then I guess I will rip them back and reknit as needed.

I hope everyone had a great long weekend. I will try and get some pictures together of everything that has been going on and I hope you will enjoy my month long journey into the land of the UFO!