Everyday ordinary: knitting

*I started this post a week and a half ago...where did my week go?*

I don't normally blog about my knitting. My two main reasons for this are: 1) there are plenty of good knitting bloggers already out there; and 2) I take forever to complete my projects. The latter is not because I'm a particularly slow, or incompetent knitter, I just don't spend much time on my knitting. Generally I get in a couple of hours a week when I might sit down to watch a movie on the weekend, or on Wednesday nights when we catch up on the latest Castle episode (we don't have cable/satellite, so we watched it on the CTV website). At this point I'm actually pretty adept at cables, bobbles, etc., and my knitting is pretty smooth, although I have less experience with knitting colour patterns.

I use to knit in class during my Masters. Not all the time, mind you, just during classes where presentations were scheduled and I didn't have to take notes. I'm perfectly capable of listening to people talk, while knitting. In fact, I'd argue I pay more attention while knitting, then I would have if I'd sat at my desk with an open notebook. Then I'd be more likely to doodle, or jot down writing ideas, in which case I'd totally tune out the speaker. I generally don't take my knitting out on public transit or at movies/theatres, however. In the case of transit, I ride the LRT all of two stops and often don't sit down. And although I'm pretty good at watching t.v. and knitting at the same time, I don't think I could do it in the dark. That and I'm pretty fussy about my theatre etiquette.

At any rate, I've completed a variety of projects as of late, so I thought I'd showcase them here.

My most recent sweater. I generally only complete one (full sized--i.e. not for a baby) sweater a year. I started out making a cardigan, but it became clear about half way through that this wool was too thick a gauge to work properly. I re-started it sometime in February or March and only got it finished in November (3 baby sweaters got in the way).

Fingerless gloves. I bought this wool over a year ago and had a different glove pattern in mind, but I never got around to finishing them. I re-tackled this project just before Christmas, and had them done shortly after retuning home.

A cozy/case for our netbook. No pattern used here. I just picked an interesting stitch pattern out of my Vogue Sitchionary and knit it in a long rectangle. I've been meaning to add some buttons so the top flap will stay closed.

A closer look at the pattern--a simple lace. I did a different pattern on the other side (plain eyelets) that I thought might look like the 'under side' of the pattern. I started this sometime in November and completed it over 2 weeks.

I decided to sign up for this crafting 'Pay it Forward' thing going around on Facebook. I happen to have a package for 6 vegetable bags...this is the first, a pea pod purse. I just need to sew in the pockets and add the zipper. I knit pretty much all of it last weekend during the Canadian Nationals.

A cabbage clutch. My second 'Pay it Forward' gift. I just need to finish up the top edging and add a zipper. I think I started this one last Sunday.