WIP Wednesday: Back To What I Want

With my Christmas gift knitting finished and on its way to their recipients, I can finally focus back on my favorite makes: things for myself, lol. I've been plugging away at the Belladonna Cardigan this week in hopes of finishing it before the end of the year, which I think is pretty do-able, honestly. I stopped last night with just 1 more ribbing row and the bind off for the body, so next up is the neck and button bands before moving onto the sleeves and then int will be finished. I'm hoping the length turns out good - I'm kind of on the fence about where it stops, but I'm holding out hope for after it's blocked and has sleeves.

I really like the shaping on this sweater - instead of having shaping at the sides as usual, this one places them like front and back darts and they are hidden in the lace pattern. See how the plain sections angle down at the waist? That's the shaping. So cool. I'm very excited to see how this looks when it's all blocked out.

I'm also realizing I have a lack of neutral colored socks. I only ever wear socks in the winter and before now I had always only worn them with tall boots, so the socks were always covered. I just got some ankle boots and realized I need some socks that can be seen without being crazy colors. I have wound up a ball of a beautiful skein I won in a giveaway years ago - Morning Bright Organic Merino/Nylon Sock in the Moonlit colorway. I remember being a bit underwhelmed with it when I first won because it's a very neutral light gray color, but now that I need actual practical socks I'm glad I had it on hand. I want to use it to make a textured sock like the 2 Hunter Hammerson designs I have in the picture. Jury is still out on which design I choose, lol.

But being a person who does not like to have a bunch of WIPs at once, planning those socks made me feel guilty about not working on these socks from literally 1 week shy of a year ago. I started these at a Solar Bears hockey game because I needed a small enough project to get into the arena, but shortly after that I got very into my sweater projects and stopped making these. These are Jaywalker Socks, which I've made before, and this is Premier Fruits yarn in the Dragonfruit colorway. Isn't it so fun? This yarn and pattern combo gives me very "Dragonfruit Goes To College" vibes. Part of why I haven't worked on these is that needle. I got experimental earlier in the year and decided to try knitting socks on a shortie circular needle. Guys... I absolutely hate this needle, lol. I need to pull out my trusty carbon fiber double pointed needles and just blast through this project. I'm trying to decide if I need to make myself finish these before starting the gray pair...

So that's what's going on with me this week. I'm doing all the Christmas things with my kids and working a lot but I always make at least some time for my hobbies to keep me sane. How are things going for your holiday this year?