The Ides of August (Lavori 7/30 doily progress report)

If not the ides of August, it's close enough.

Progress on my Lavori 7/30 doily has been slow.  The stitch count is increasing again, and, well, I often slow down at around this point in a long project.  But there is progress, yay!  As far as I can tell, the doily now has 12 pattern repeats per round.  The chart still shows 6 pattern repeats per round, but that just means that there are 2 repeats charted on each line of the chart.  I'm not too far off from where the pattern transitions to the outer fan motifs and the chart really does switch to 12 repeats per round.

I did finish my Touchstone shawl, my travel project for the last few months.  It's a boomerang shawl for sure -- longer than I am tall, but not terribly deep (less than 2 feet if I block aggressively).  It's more of a scarf than a shawl.  I haven't blocked it yet.

The colors are pretty and they harmonize very well with the pattern.  I used every last inch of yarn in the skein.  I ran out most of the way through the cast-off row, oops, but luckily the crochet-cheat-trick kludge isn't too obvious in spite of the slight tension differences.  Also, I wasn't able to finish the entire pattern as written.  The final set of eyelets calls for five eyelet bands.  I did three.  It's not a problem -- it looks fine the way it is.

But this means I have no travel project!!!  ACK!!!  Plus I'll need one for tomorrow!  As a default, I can make acrylic ribbed hats for charity.

I'm thinking of doing another one of Sarah Bradberry's Feather and Fan Comfort Shawls, since it's very hap-shawl-like (it's a half-square triangle shawl with f&f).  I have a mish-mash of hand-dyed handspun that I'd like to find a use for.  They're all medium gray Romney dyed in various shades (deliberately uneven dyeing to have somewhat variegated roving).  A few are barberpoled, while the others are self-plied.  Most are 1.5-3 ounces, 100-200 yards each, roughly 1000-1200 yards total.  F&F is a pretty reasonable pattern choice for stripes and long variegations.

Or, I could cast on a zillion stitches and do a rectangular piece of F&F, one skein after another, and then end up with a rectangular lap blanket or shawl.

Or I could do a center-out shawl/blanket, either circular/polygonal or square.  I'd have to give a little consideration to the cast-off so that things didn't roll, but I've done that before by using a couple of rounds of crochet-cast-off, or by doing a bit of garter or seed stitch on the final rounds.  One problem with this is that I'd really be horsing stitches around the needle by the end.  Even the half-square triangle tends to get unwieldy by the time it's close to done.

Or I could do something else entirely.  I have two or three other batches of yarn I'd like to use up if I can find a reasonable pattern to complement them.  Maybe one of them would be better for the F&F half-square triangle pattern.  Hmmm.

Plus I'm going to be learning how to weave on a rigid heddle loom soon, and that too can use a lot of my handspun to good effect even though it's not exactly the same thing as a travel knitting project.

Dithering is stressful.

I'm also eyeing a shawl I started long ago.  It's been sitting for a while.  Do I continue it?  Do I unravel it?  It's not a difficult pattern but it's not quite calm enough for a travel project.  If I do unravel it, what would I do with the yarn?  And should I try the pattern again but with a different yarn?  The yarn I'm using does suit the pattern, but there's 1000 yards of it, and maybe I'd rather have something smaller.

At least the spinning does not require any decisions currently.  I'm doing a 4-oz batch of something not-great as a first project for the most recently rescued wheel.  It's going well.  Dunno what I'll spin after that, but I'll worry about that when this batch is done.  I have to figure out tomorrow's knitting first.