Two finished knitting projects

I finished a couple of knitting projects recently. For many years, my main knitting time was during meetings at work.  It helped me keep to keep from talking too much, and let me feel like I was getting something done, even if the meeting happened to be unproductive--like doodling.  I would always choose a pattern simple enough that I didn't have to look at the work as I knit, and I would make regular eye contact, so people knew my attention was on the meeting. One of the benefits of retirement has been many fewer meetings, but when to knit?  Now I knit for an hour during the evening, when my husband and I watch one or another TV series. When I was working, I very rarely watched TV; I spent the evenings either doing work-related stuff or doing sewing projects.  Now I'm able to enjoy watching TV, perhaps especially because it's a good time to knit!

The bigger project completed is a lovely baby blanket, made with a variegated yarn that wanders between gray and lavendar.  You can see the pattern on Ravelry, a great site for knitters.

I generally knit baby blankets with a thin, fingering weight yarn.  I think it's a nicer product, but mainly, I'm looking for something that will take me a long time to knit, so I use thin yarn.  I knit because I enjoy knitting, more than I'm looking to the final product.  So, when I start a baby blanket, I never have a particular baby in mind, as it takes many months to finish the blanket.

As it happens, another baby is due soon in my social network, and I look forward to sending this off.

A few months ago I started a scarf for David.  He chose a really nice two-color pattern, easy to knit and a lovely finished look.  It's a Purl Soho pattern, available here.  Again, I used fingering yarn for this project, a very nice wool/silk mixture from KnitPicks. The colors are teal (Kenai) and a lovely light gray (Robot); the photo below is on the yellow side

The edges of the scarf came out a bit ripply.  I could disguise that with some added tassles, but they were nixed by the recipient.  He likes it as is!