There has been knitting…

I’ve been absent lately, not because I haven’t been knitting, but because I’ve become totally consumed with a community project. The City Council where I live seems to think that it’d be a good idea to bulldoze our only downtown playground (which is also used by the local elementary school) and build a parking garage.

Yes, there’s been a lot of Joni Mitchell played and sung around here lately…

I love this playground. I’ve been taking my kids here for almost ten years. The neighboring elementary school is one of the oldest in the nation and is about to get a $27 million renovation. It’s going to be a first-class facility that will draw families to our downtown area. Tearing down the school’s playground and hiding the school behind a towering parking garage is hardly the way to show that education is important to our community. So first I got upset. Then I got mad. Then I went to work, mobilizing all the moms I know in this area. And getting them to mobilize all the moms they know, and so on. There’s a lot of money on the line, which always makes for a contentious debate, but angry moms are ferocious. And we’re not giving up or going away.

I have been knitting, though, in between council meetings and planning sessions. I went to a baby shower yesterday, and I knit the expectant mom an adorable little hat that looks like an upside flower plunked down on a baby’s head. I used some seriously scrumptious yarn (Sublime cashmere merino silk aran) in a gorgeous pinky-mauve color. It turned out great, but you’ll have to take my word for it, since I completely failed to take a picture before I gave it to her. Sigh.

Bad blogger, I know.

The green sweater is still in time-out. I’m still debating frogging it completely and turning it into a February Lady Sweater instead. I frogged my first swatch and started to swatch in the gull wing lace pattern. Before I can get serious about this project, I need to work out the math for the rounded scoop neckline and the raglan shaping, which is a bit tricky with the lace pattern. Nothing like a challenge…

The red FLS is definitely on its way to the frog pond. I’m thinking I need a niddy-noddy, though, so I can frog, skein, and soak the yarn so I can use it again for another project. Skeining yarn by hand is a royal pain.

The baby sweater is coming along nicely (it’s been a great project to tote around with me); more on that just as soon as I dig out my camera.

And I pulled out a vest that I started designing last year. It has a circular yoke with a lace pattern, cap sleeves and then a little lace detail down the front and around the hem. It’s worked in Knit Picks City Tweed, in the marsh colorway. (I originally purchased this yarn for a cabled sweater, but then I decided that the cables didn’t pop in the tweed as much as I wanted. But the yarn was so squishy and soft that I had to use it for something, so I sketched out this design.) I’m not sure why I put this down (might’ve been the Rhinebeck sweater or maybe holiday knitting), but I really liked the design, and it’s definitely something I’d wear a lot, so I’m putting that back in the knitting rotation. (It’s the Tweed Vest in the sidebar.) Pictures to come…

So what’s on your needles?

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