O Fraptious Week

It is amazing what not working can do for your productivity. I went to Seattle to see my parents for about 10 days, and I got so much knitting done! It's shocking, since when I'm here and going to lab, I rarely get any science done. So now I kind of wonder what I actually do with all my time...
Anyway here's the finished Ella, looking, if I do say so myself, quite nice. And I think I can say that, since its fabulousness is entirely due to the pattern, and not my knitting skills. I loved this pattern, it is the perfect combination of easy and interesting. And you have to love any pattern that tells you upfront not to worry too much when you make mistakes. Usually I feel like the knitting gods are looking over my shoulder and frowning when I decide to just k2tog instead of going back to find where I made the extra stitch. But Wendy (the fabulous author of the fabulous pattern) clearly understands knitters like me.
This was knit with 4 skeins of Lorna's Laces Sport in Black Purl using size 8 needles.



This shawl is so darn wide it was hard to take a picture of the whole thing. I tried standing on my bed but even that didn't work. Here's most of it:

But wait! That's not all! I also finished (drumroll....) one sock!!! My very first sock! I know it's been said before, so I will just say that I now understand why everyone keeps blathering about being addicted to sock knitting. When I was still a sock virgin, this made no sense to me. I thought, why would you want to spend all that time and money knitting things that you can buy at Costco in a pack of 10 for $10, and that's going to get all stinky once it goes on your foot anyway? But now I see the light. For one, it was so much easier and faster than I thought it was going to be. This one took about 3 days. (We'll see how long the 2nd one takes, now that I'm back in SF not doing science.)
This pattern and the yarn were both christmas presents from my future mother-in-law, of alpaca shearing fame. The pattern is called YO cable socks (which my dad saw and said Yo! Cable socks!) by Knitting Kitten Patterns, the yarn is a lovely red sportweight alpaca by The Alpaca Yarn Company.
Here's the front:


And here's the side:

AND, when I got back from Seattle, I found this waiting for me:

A cheapo pack of Rowanspun DK in Punch that I ordered from Ebay. It's such a snazzy color. I was telling this to Marie, I know I had a project in mind when I ordered this yarn, but I cannot now for the life of me remember what it was. Marie suggested the hourglass sweater, which I think might be a good idea, but I know that wasn't what I was thinking of. This makes me think I should go through all my yarn now and label what projects I have in mind for all of it. Jeez. Maybe this absentmindedness explains why I don't get anything done most of the time.