future project thinking

 Of course, when I have a project with a deadline, and lots of other unfinished stuff, I find myself thinking about new things I want to start. I have a couple sweaters on the needles already, and some socks, and the mitts, and the Syyslaullu shawl. 

But I think about Greenstone, and the big bulky-weight cardigan (the yarn for which was one of my last ever JoAnn's purchases, though I didn't know it at the time), and a couple other things

I had ordered some yarn from a UP dyer (Powers! I know where that is) on Etsy. One of the colors I got was called Hexagonaria, which is the genus name of the fossil coral that makes up Petosky stones. I've always liked those (I even have a pendant that is cut from one) and when I got it, it occurred to me that a hexagon-pattern sock might be nice. I wasn't sure I wanted to do something heavily cabled or like a re-do of the Snicket socks (lots of traveling stitches, and they came out TIGHT). 

But I found a pattern with a simple "small" cable on it, reminiscent of a vest from Knitty I made years ago (Sarah Castor's Honeycomb Vest)

it's called Honeycomb Socks, and is by Studio North. So it maybe even fits with the UP North yarns...

 Also one of my Bluesky friends who knits - I think it was Heather, aka Kitty Furniture, referred to another Knitty pattern, "Wavedock," which is a half-round shawl that takes about 500 yards of yarn (so: a generous single big skein, or 2-3 smaller ones). And I thought "maybe sometime I make that) and hunted about in my stash for yarn* and found a couple balls of a light fingering bordering on lace that I have 600 some yards of, and it's in dark jewel tones. I bought it for a small shawl years ago but never found a pattern I liked. 

I remembered it, and found it

 Yeah, that'll work. That'll work well

I should take everything that I find a pattern for, and put it together in a bag (ideally a clear one because I am very much "out of sight, out of mind" now) and store them somewhere accessible so when I am ready to start something new I can "shop" my "self made up" kits.... 

(*I suspect given tariffs and no more de minimus and everything else, a lot of us with stashes of supplies will be digging in them, and heck, I may even be opening my boxes and sharing with friends who knit or crochet)

And I realized that Syysaula would work as an invigilating project: I'm still on the long "increase every rightside row and knit all in garter stitch" long triangle part (I should wind off the second ball). It won't take a lot of concentration, it's not having to begin something new (I won't have much time tomorrow, and probably won't post an entry because of a full day of teaching and also evening meetings), and it will get some progress on a project that's already going.

I did finish the first section of the chicken's tail tonight and cast on for the second. I need to motor on this a little this weekend so that I can have it done in time to send to my niece before early October when her birthday is.