Works in progress:
1) Samus from Knitty, with a two-color stranded cabled band of burgundy on gray Cascade Eco Wool, on size 10 needles, size 9 for the body. I'll have to resize the whole body, but the band looks so nice I just don't care. (In progress since fall 2006... what month I have since forgotten, but I was working on the bottom band in Boston last fall, 8/23/06, so I must have started it early or mid-August, shortly after arriving in Bloomington.)
2) Two-color brioche scarf for me, handspun blue two-ply yarn and Brown Sheep Naturespun in Ash, double-stranded on size 13 needles. Started 12/14/06?
3) Fleece-Stuffed Mittens from Favorite Mittens book, started 1/12/07. Size Adult M.
4) Twinkle Shopping Tunic ripoff with Hyacinth Violet Lopi on size 15 needles, started 3/8/07.
5) Seafoam scarf for Mom, Louisa Harding Impression Color 07, Lot 29 (84% nylon and 16% mohair, 50g/154yds/140m, 5sts/", size 6 needle)--soft mallard duck colors of teal, white, brown, and here and there a royal purple, with a soft taupe mohair carried along with it. 26 sts on size 8 needles. Stitch pattern: Rows 1, 2, knit. Row 3, k6, *yo 2, k1, yo 3, k1, yo 4, k1, yo 3, k1, yo 2, k6* to end of row. Row 4, knit, dropping all YOs from needle. Rows 5 and 6, same as 1 and 2. Row 7, same as row 3, but start with k1 instead of k6. Row 8, same as row 4. Started 5/9. Stalled 6/3 because I ran out of yarn after knitting in the car and I left the second skein of this at home.
6) Chunky alpaca scarf, http://www.cs.oswego.edu/~ebozak/knit/esb-patterns/thermal-scarf.html, size 10.5 needles, Misti Alpaca Chunky in brown and navy. Not coming out that great (as far as I can tell by the bad night lighting), so I may need to rip and re-knit with a different pattern, maybe even just stripes.
7) Pomatomus socks, started 5/11/07, size 3 needles, sock 1 finished 8/2/07 in the car on the way to Cleveland. Purple and gray Koigu.
8) Reverse-engineed Orangina in pale green Dalegarn Svale, color 9012, dye lot 7836. I got this for a few bucks a skein from Wild String's closing sale. It's a bit too lite-and-brite for me, but I'll try to think of it as a spring-leafy color. I am knitting 10 repeats of the vine lace panel on my size 3 Boyes--this should hopefully be about 16" for each piece. Will work front and back identically to about 14" (or whatever seems to be a good length) and join to work either 3x3 ribbing or 2x2 ribbing in the round on size 2s. The pattern calls for 3x3, but I accidentally swatched in 2x2 and it seems to flow out of the vine lace pattern pretty well that way. Started 6/6/07.

Yarn to do something with:
- Sweater's worth of green Silky Wool: Phildar swing jacket
- Sweater's worth of sage green Peru Luxury DK: something (Jess?) for Patty
- Sweater's worth of burgundy Peru Luxury DK: Somewhat Cowl
- Sweater's worth of pale blue Jaeger merino DK with one ball of mushroom brown: Jemima
- Sweater's worth of lavender chunky Lopi: in progress--shopping tunic; maybe something else
- handspun DK gray wool
- handspun DK white merino
- handspun chunky brown alpaca
- handspun, hand-dyed red chunky wool: handwarmers
- 1 skein gray Artfibers Ming: Moebius Cowl
- 3? skeins pink Artfibers Tsuki: Butterfly
- less than 1 skein lavender Artfibers Tsuki: Branching Out
- 1.5 skeins Painted Iris Kid Merino
- 2 skeins lavender Koigu: Pomatomus
- 1 skein blue Trekking: Bayerische socks
- 5 skeins red Cascade Indulgence: keyhole top
- recycled yarn from: cream wool sweater, turquoise silk sweater, tan silk sweater
- 3 skeins silver Touch Me: another reworked Vintage Velvet?
- One skein of Noro Aurora. If I can't think of anything else, I'll make another Dream Swatch with it. But that doesn't seem imaginative. Maybe a lace scarf would be nicer. I'm using it in a little scarf now in Ivy stitch, but have stalled, uninspired--started thinking that perhaps I could hold this together with leftover Eco Wool in one strand of a two-strand twisted cable and it would look quite pretty.
- A sweater's worth of gray Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran, and one skein of gorgeously azure Kyoto from Artfibers. I am thinking I'll do a monochromatic but indulgent Fair Isle-style sweater with these two, and maybe other blue and green scraps as well.
- A small sweater's worth of orange, blush, and yellow yarn in the form of a free sweater picked up off the street. I've been meaning to make a scarf and hat set from this, but need to frog and straighten it first, and find just the right pattern.
- Two cones of pale blue, fuzzy acrylic yarn from Yarns Unlimited. I got this really cheap and one of these days I'll cast on with it for Belle Epoque from Knitty. I've been hesitating because it's such a big project.
- A sweater's worth of soft turquoise mohair from a big sale at Greenwich Yarns. Since purchasing the possum yarn (see below) I have decided to scrap the idea of using this for the Greek Pullover, and instead do an asymmetrical raglan split-neck cardigan with big wooden buttons.
- About 2000 yards of beautifully soft cream alpaca purchased for $25/10 skeins off Craigslist. Mmmm. I think I might make Rogue with this.
- Two skeins of laceweight alpaca from Knitpicks (purchased used, cheap). I will use this to make a triangle shawl for my grandma in the lace knitting class I'm taking now.
- Two skeins purple, black, and white Regia self-striping sock yarn. I will make my first socks with this, one of these days.
added after my visit to Sheep Street:
- Leftover Misti Alpaca and lavender yarn to make mittens with (I think)

PARTLY USED UP
- Navy fingering wool and nylon to hold together for a couple of new Odessa hats
- Seven skeins of burgundy Debbie Bliss Aran Tweed. I think I am going to knit a capelet of my own design with this. I was disappointed because the color didn't match for the Samus I had wanted to make, and the yarn seems very stiff and twine-like. I don't know if it will work for the capelet, either, but we'll see.
- About 500 yards of sage green dishcloth cotton from a swap on Knittyboard. I need to find a non-garish pink cotton to go with it so that I can knit a skirt with it. (edit: Was 800 yards, now 500 yards due to having knit Felicity's dress with it)
- A sweater's worth of discontinued black possum worsted from Cherry Tree Hill's Labor Day sale. The plan has changed--I will use this for the Greek Pullover from IK Fall 2005. Once you knit a little with it, it's amazingly soft and fuzzy, like angora.
- Two skeins of beautifully soft royal blue Fonty angora. I think I will hold this together with the rest of my Oriental Jade Cotton Fleece to make an ocean-colored scarf. If not, it might go with the gray and blue sweater, but I don't think any other yarn will hold its own alongside the Kyoto. The color of the angora just looks flat when you look at the two together.
- Three skeins of SWTC Bamboo yarn in Azul (blues, greens, yellows) with which I intend to make a Lotus Blossom Tank from Interweave Knits Summer 2006, with the top converted to Magknits' Ballet Camisole sweetheart neckline.


ALL/MOSTLY USED UP
- Black DK (?) alpaca to do something with
- White silk hankies to dye and hand-spin
- Orange Classic Elite Miracle (alpaca/tencel) for a hat for me--I'm thinking of Shedir from Knitty
- Black Plymouth yarn for a balaclava for Rahul
- A sweater's worth of pink SWTC Optimum yarn. I haven't decided what to do with it--I'm thinking maybe a horizontally cabled yoke, or a large basketweave stitch, the Somewhat Cowl, or cables crossing at the chest like a twinset cardigan.

Notes from "Knitting in the Old Way"

Percentages:
Master number: chest plus ease
Head in a crewneck sweater: 40-45% around
Chest (with set-in sleeves): 30-35% across
Upper sleeve: 35-40% around

Bottom of notch (bound-off sts): 5% each side (8-10% total)
Main sleeve set-in: 15%
Raglan depth from center of sleeve at start of decreases to center of shoulder: 16%

Cuff: 20% around
Hip with ribbing: 90% around

Straight armhole opening to crest of shoulder: 25%
Shoulder slant usually drops 3% from the neck to the top of the armhole, leaving 22% for the length of the shoulder opening to the underarm.

From 100%, subtract 8-10% for stitches bound off level at each armpit, then another 8-10% split between front and back for the area angled by decreases (decrease at both ends of every other row). A total of 32-40% is involved in shaping both armholes. That yields 60-68% in upper body, split equally between front and back.


Sleeve cap:
10% of master number across top

Shaping Cap while Picking Up Stitches
1. Pick up 10% along top of sleeve cap (about 20% of total necessary for sleeve)
2. Slip first stitch, then purl back across these stitches. End the row by picking up 3-4 stitches purlwise along the edge of the armhole. The first must be picked up in the next armhole stitch, just at the end of the sleeve cap stitches, to avoid a hole. Turn.
3. Slip the first stitch and knit across stitches, then pick up 3-4 on other side.
Keep going w/steps 2-3 until you get to shaped sections at bottom of armhole.

Count the stitches you have picked up. Add the number of stitches on holders at the underarm. Subtract this total from the total necessary for the sleeve (50%) and divide by 2. This is the number to pick up along the two remaining shaped edges.

Shaping Cap with Short Rows
1. Pick up all stitches with right side facing, including underarm stitches, starting just before the shoulder seam, at the beginning of Section 1. Pick up about 10% in each of 5 sections (section 1 spans shoulder; section 2 and 3 at upper arms; sections 4 and 5 at lower arms.)
2. When you reach the place where you started to pick up, knit across the top to the end of Section 1, plus 3-4 sts of section 2. Wrap and turn.
3. Purl back across, pick up 3-4 sts of Section 3 at the end, wrap and turn.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3, adding 3-4 sts from either side until all sts have been worked.

You can work the short rows without joining the wrapped turns in order to get "full-fashioned marks."

Crewnecks:
regular: 20% across top of neck, 15% across bottom, 40-45% total, 2" deep.
wide: 30% across top of neck, 20% across bottom, 60% total, 2" deep.

Boatnecks: 35-40% across.

Scoopnecks: 25-30% across base, 35-40% across total.


Basic V:
20% across, 20-25% deep, decrease every 3-4 rounds. Reserve 1-2 sts at bottom of neckline.
Wide V: decrease every 2-3 rounds.
Narrow V: decrease every 4-5 rounds.

Shaping short rows: work across all arm sts and part of front body.

Yoke Sweaters
Yoke depth: 25%
Decrease in 3 sections to 40-45% at neck
1. Decrease halfway to neck. k2, k2tog around to decrease 25%.
2. Decrease after 2/3-3/4 of yoke depth. k1, k2tog around to decrease 33%.
3. Decrease at base of neck. k1, k2tog, k2tog around to decrease 40%.

Alternative: work 5 decrease rounds:
1. k8, k2tog
2. k5, k2tog
3. k3, k2tog
4. k2, k2tog
5. k1, k2tog