Lopi No More!

It's done! I finished The Lopi, but I don't have a picture of it yet. It's fine. Not great, not horrendous. I am disappointed in it, though, because I had high hopes for it. So. At least it is done and I can move on to other projects and other yarns. I have put all the lopi yarn I have left up for trade on Ravelry, and I may put up a sale listing on ebay. I want it gone. Now.

The Salish Sea socks are finished.

As with The Lopi, I'd have to say they're fine. Not great, not horrendous. I did not enjoy doing the leg, and I don't really like the look of it either. But, other than that, I do feel that knitting them was a worthwhile educational experience. The gusset was an interesting exercise. I also really like the round toe, and the heel construction was explained so well that I truly understood what I was doing and why. I'm going to try to apply what I learned in doing the heel for Rich's socks and for the second of the Knittery cashmere socks, which have returned from the hibernation basket to my active project bag. I frogged what I had of the second sock and started over, using Judy's magic cast on this time. I still dislike the Knittery cashmere yarn, but I have to admit that the sock is looking good so far. I'm looking forward to doing the heel this time, now that I know what I am doing. I'll get a new picture of that eventually.

Because I am insane, and very possibly a knitting masochist, I cast on for this:

Isn't it pretty? It's a sleeve for Inishmore, by Alice Starmore. I have wanted to do this sweater for ages, but always put it off because it would involve buying a ton of aran yarn, and because I was concerned about gauge. But then Leslie and Frank gave me a bag full of gen-U-wine aran wool from Ireland for Christmas, and it just seemed to be the most perfect yarn for this sweater!
I am still having gauge issues: even though I went down a needle size I am still getting 5 inches instead of 4 for the designated number of stitches. But I threw caution to the wind and cast on a sleeve, just to give it a try. It's a boxy design, so I am hoping I can fudge things to make it work. I'm doing the small size in hopes that this will help to make up for the extra inches I'll be getting. I also expect I'll have to make some changes to the patterning on the body. We'll see.

I expect this will take me a very long time to do. The twisted stitches, although beautiful, do slow me down a bit. They're also a bit hard on the hands. But it is sooooo pretty.