Wednesday is for Works-in-Progress

I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple
in a field somewhere and don't notice it.
-Alice Walker

All this resurrecting old FOs, and posting daily for more than half a month, and shamefully little attention has been paid to what is actually on the needles.

How about a preview of the next FOs?

First up, finishing up the Socktoberfest startitis:

Little Child's French Sock from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks, in a delightful purple Rowan Botany. This is a lovely sproingy yarn deep from the recesses of the stash, and it's looking good. I'm done the first sock, and a few repeats down the cuff of the second.

Next, My So-Called Scarf.
This was October's Yarn of the Month, but I've only just started paying attention to it. This exact yarn for this exact project has been stash marinating since December 2005 when I was visiting a friend in Seattle. We took the ferry over to Bainbridge Island, and there it was. About time, and isn't it lovely?Unfortunately, lace work-in-progress photos are less lovely. This is the North Sea Shawl from Folk Shawls, which has been in my mental queue since I first started knitting. That was one of the few knitting books the local library had when I started knitting, and I used to dream about the projects. No time like the present, using some lovely fingering weight alpaca in navy blue that my brother brought me from Peru. It's an easy repetitive pattern for now, and I'm enjoying it. I had been holding steady with those projects and the Dale, until this weekend. A one (or two, or three, or . . .) project knitter I am not. So I started Debbie Bliss' Seed Stitch and Cables baby sweater out of some blue Cotton Ease.
Is it just me, or does Debbie Bliss have the largest children? This is the 18 month size, and it looks like it would easily fit my 10 yo niece.

And, while it didn't make the photo shoot, I also cast on for the Aran Watch Cap from Charlene Schurch's Hat's On! book in a burdgundy Paton's Classic Merino. I need to be prepared for the annual family Christmas pollyanna, and picking names on Thanksgiving doesn't leave a lot of time for knitters.

The good news is that I expect to finish all of these except the shawl (but I will finish the Dale!) by the end of the month. . . which should help offset the stash aquisition for the Second Anniversary Sweater. Is it wrong to be happy that my yarn is backordered and hopefully won't come until December? Or is that just the kind of fuzzy accounting that got the whole economy in trouble?