gone fishing

I'm casting around for something to knit. I have of course a few things on the needles which I really need to face up to - Baudelaire socks perhaps? - but more on that some other time. I have cast on for a few things, looking for 'what to knit now'.

I'm still grieving a bit about my completed Daybreak shawl and am looking for that same hit, that feeling that this is exactly what I want to be knitting right now. (And thank you to Lynn in Tucson who so accurately described Von Trier's Breaking the Waves as "the best film I never want to see again".)

This is the possible beginning of another shawl - Shaelyn by Leila Raabe. The yarn is 92 per cent merino, 8 per cent cashmere, recycled from one of Tim's sweaters that was starting to look a bit tired (and was from Goodwill originally). I'm a bit undecided whether to knit with a single strand or double strand, one seems too lightweight, the other too heavyweight ... so I have to decide what sort of shawl I want and what size needle to use.

And this one, well - am I nuts? I have never done stranded knitting but necessity and invention and so forth. I have, however, long wanted to knit this project - a tea cup, blue and white of course - but in size 5 crochet cotton? on 2mm needles? hmm ...

And last but not least, the beginnings of a sleeve with a provisional cast-on. At this point probably the most straightforward of my possible projects but not for long. A few weeks ago, I ruined a great cardigan that I bought at Goodwill - strangely enough it was a hemp/cotton mix which I didn't think would shrink. I've rarely had any trouble putting woollens through the wash. Anyway, there are aspects of this poor old cardi that I really liked - non-standard construction, clever use of stripes, asymmetrical front opening - and after having had so much fun knitting with the Noro Kureyon sock yarn, I have decided to try and reproduce it as a handknit. Something else that I have never done before. The dark blue shown here is Dale Baby Ull, a superwash 100 per cent merino 4ply/fingering weight yarn. It is lovely and soft, even if a bit splitty and this really is my favourite weight of yarn to work in. I love the weight of the fabric that it produces.

The logical solution to all this? Spend the evening sewing.