knit parade: piles part 1: selfish knitting

until i knit myself my first sweater, it felt very much like i would never knit for myself again. i was knitting a slew of (embarassingly late) christmas gifts, hit a few bouts of dud knitting, and just felt like my knitting mojo had been benched. 

now that i've pledged to get through my stash, i thought i'd begin by tackling my reserve stash:  the yarn i like to look at the most, my most petted, my most prized. 

project pile before blocking

yes. yarn really is one of the things that make me happy. in my late 30's it's not as easy to reverse the effects of regular chocolate eating (oh how i miss you), so it really is indulgent binge knitting that soothes this working momma's soul when the job-work and parenting-work day is done and most of the housework hastily attended to.

that's a shawlette, a cowl,  and 2 hats. just look at all that texture! oh they make me so happy. all my favourite colours, too.

here i am wearing the hat at the top of the pile. i don't usually like to take photos of myself but i was just so happy with how the hat turned out that i thought i'd show you just how fabulous it looks on.

 renfrew by jane richmond in madelinetosh vintage 

here is the wife modelling the butterfly hat and the lansbury cowl that comes next. i  knit an extra pattern repeat on th ehat because i wanted it extra slouchy. she looks good wearing them, doesn't she?

hat: butterfly hat in madelinetosh pashmina
cowl: lansbury cowl in fibre company terra

let me be clear. these knits are mine. 

(i may lend them to her if she asks me nicely. my children hijack my food. she hijacks my knits. i am a pushover.)

and then, there's this first lace shawl. 

it was such a surprisingly easy and fast knit. i couldn't be happier with how it turned out. 

little shells in we will tell you all of our secrets bfl 

what's more... the wife sewed a button for me on each end, so i could potentially wear it as an adjustable shrug, should the need arise. brilliant really. but i'll show you that another time (mainly because i have no picture to show for it just yet)

i'm gearing up for luvinthemommyhood's annual summer sweater knit-a-long (kal). it starts this wednesday! 

i'm pretty excited about it, giddy almost. i'm not even sure why, to be honest. there are prizes, yes. but the last time i won something in a raffle of any kind was in my early twenties. these things just rarely happen for me. but if i had to put my finger on why i wound my yarn the moment i saw shannon's announcement on her blog, the reason for my rapt anticipation is the idea of knitting sweaters along with many around the world. those who participate in kals like this generally post their comments, progress, and pictures on the ravelry forum page and cheer each other on. the moderators  are always sweet and encouraging (becca of nook is one of them). you meet new people, drool over their yarn, marvel at their knitting genius, pick up a tip or two. not bad for fringe benefits - especially when you've finished 2-3 toddler-sized sweaters by the time the kal has run it's course (grand plans i have, you see).

if you've never joined a kal or knit a sweater (even the wee ones count), knit along with me! i'm always up for a bit of knit chat. 

you can check out the general summer sweater kal rules and all the other details here. 

the wife is in. she's knitting her first sweater - in her size. which i think is rather brave and super cool. 

i hope to share some weekly updates but let's just see how the next few weeks pan out. work is busy. our parenting days are similarly full. and we have a vacation coming up - which means cleaning house and dotting the i's and t's on everything else so we can just zone and and be for a week. but i fully intend on tracking my own progress here so... fair warning: it's going to get more knit-centric over here than it usually is!