Betwixt and Between

Temps soared into the high 80s for several days this week and the whole world burst into bloom. I decided it was high time to wash the fingerless mitts that got the most wear over the winter. (I wear them around the house a lot—helps keep the heating bill down.)

Clockwise, from upper left, the patterns are: 1) My Fiery Searcher Mitts, 2) Chalice Mitts by Julia Trice (in yarn I dyed with hickory nuts), 3) no pattern—I made up these up on the fly using alpaca bought at a local farmers market, and 4) Toast by Leslie Friend (the dark grey is my very first handspun!).

Wouldn't you know, as soon as I put them away, the weather turned cool. We even had a danger of frost the past couple nights. So this morning I was wearing my Toast again.  

When it comes to projects, I'm as "in between" as the weather. My second Conklaree, which I'm knitting this time with two strands of laceweight yarn (Jaggerspun Zephyr) held together, is coming along but nowhere near being finished. 

Even though these days I usually catch mistakes on the same or next row, I still use lifelines religiously on lace projects like this. You just never know. I like to use a laceweight wool—it's thin and it stays put. If you use lifelines, what do you use?

My next sock design is also "betwixt and between." I'd finished about five inches when I hit upon a much more interesting way of doing the ribbing and transitioning from that to the next stitch pattern. The more I considered it, the more I liked the new idea. So I started over completely! 

Glad I did, though—I like the design even more now.

There've been beginning and endings on the embroidery front, too. I finished my "Abend" piece, the one with the silhouetted trees at dusk. Now I need to mount it and take better photos.

And I'm nearing the end on two wrinkle embroidery pieces. For a while I didn't work on these two at all, but now I'm motivated to finish so I can enter them in a show in June.

I've also been swatching and planning some fall designs, but can't show you anything much right now. Like I said, it's a very "betwixt and between" time!

How about you? Have you finished anything recently, or are you "betwixt and between," too?  Wherever you are, I hope you have a beautiful weekend!

P.S. Look for a new Fiber Conversations post soon, with Brenda Pirie of End of the Row Yarns.