Start--and Finish--itis

I have been in the grips of such a mad case of startitis lately. I just want to knit every yarn in my stash now, now, NOW! This weekend I jumped into some charity knitting. I'm making 7" x 9" blocks for Warm Up America and newborn hats for Save the Children. I started with the blocks and decided to crochet just for a change of pace. The first one was kind of wonky.



For the next I tried a shell pattern.



Then a slightly fancier pattern in a yarn called Red Barn Diva Ball. I got it as a freebie. It's a bizarre thing. It's six or seven strands of yarn in 10 yard lengths wound into a skein together. So you have to slowly coax each one out to work with or else make a project that calls for 10 yards of enormo-bulky yarn.



Then I did a sideways block with some handspun. It was too small so I single crocheted around the edge with some Sheep 2 from the sadly defunct Sheep Shop.



Then I bought a really big hook and used some Dale of Norway Ara to make this one in about 30 minutes.



Then I decided to see if I could crochet a hat. It turns out I can. And with a giant yarn and a big hook (10mm) it only took an hour or so to make. I didn't know how to taper it in properly (I started at the crown) so I just switched to a smaller hook for the last few rounds.



And lastly I whipped up a sweet newborn hat in some Louet Eastport Alpaca.



I used this pattern which I thought gave it a little interest but kept it nice and simple to knit.

After this frenzy I went into my stash and started rummaging through my handspun. I have so much yarn and I love it all. I want to cast on for another dozen projects right now!