Year of Projects 4: 8th February update

Another month has passed, and I have singularly failed to update on my progress. There has been progress, but I've also been fairly busy and haven't had time to do things like take decent photos, or sit down and write a post. I'm hopeful this will change going forward, as I have a new laptop which will make writing posts a lot less of a hassle, and I've just found this tutorial on Pinterest for making a light box, which will make taking photos in the dark winter evenings a lot easier. I even have a cardboard box lying around in my kitchen which will be perfect for it!

There is one thing which may interrupt a regular posting schedule again, though, as we were told last week that our landlords want to sell the house, so we are being forced to move house again. We have to be out by 8th April, so I may be a little distracted over the next few months. Luckily, the two main projects I have on the go right now don't require a lot of concentration, and can easily be picked up and put down again after only having worked a few stitches here and there.

My stripey socks are coming along well. While it has taken me longer than my target ten days to finish, that's mostly down to the fact that I put them away and then ignored them for a couple of weeks! Since taking this photo yesterday I have finished the foot, turned the heel and made a solid start on the ankle. I'm about 40 rows away from the cuff, which means about 50 rows from completion. There's probably enough yarn left in the ball to make a second pair, but I have other plans for it. Plans which involve food colouring!

Last time I updated I said Pogona would probably be the next shawl I cast on, and it turns out I was right. I started this earlier this week, as a way of soothing myself following the bad news about the house. I'm using Wollmeise Twin in Mouseballet, but it's a We're Different skein so the colours aren't perfect. The colours are striping and pooling in odd ways, as the colour changes are so short, and I'm interested to see how it looks once the shawl gets bigger. So far, I'm enjoying this pattern as it's so simple. Now I've done my final set of marker placements, all I have to do is knit the same two rows over and over again until it's big enough. And since I have a whole 150g of yarn to play with, it might end up a bit bigger than it's supposed to!

As I'm likely to finish the socks this week, I've already thought about what I want to cast on next - the Bandwagon Socks that have been sat at the top of my Ravelry queue for quite a while now. If I get through those as quickly as the plain socks then I think I'll be on track for finishing at least 4 pairs of socks in this Year of Projects.