Instant gratification

That's what I need.  My knitting and crocheting has been making me a little twitchy lately, and I think it's because everything is a long-term project.  At this time of year I'm working on the larger projects for the December fundraiser, like blankets and large shawls, and when progress for an evening's work is half an inch completed, it's kind of hard to feel like it actually is progress.  There's this, the back of a vest for myself:

The fronts are under way, but this is fingering weight yarn with many stitches, so it's slow going and I probably won't be wearing it this winter, alas.  And I'm not all that fond of making cables.  I saw it as a challenge, but now it feels like punishment.

And there's this blanket, which is a simple pattern and easily memorized, but in the middle of the 7th row of squares I looked up the pattern to find out how many rows of squares I needed, and was dismayed to find that it calls for 23 rows of squares.  That's a lot of stitches.  I'm pretty sure when I made it before as a gift I did not make it that long.  At least it's nice yarn to handle - Ultra Pima, smooth, shiny cotton.

And this scarf, which will look a little different once blocked.  Laceweight wool, so it's very light.  The squares get linked together as you go, and the dangling ends are annoying enough that I work them in every few squares, but there's only so much of this I can take at a time, and I don't like my color choices.  Especially the olive.  I should have included some white and some yellow, but I'm crap at choosing colors.

I finished a sock, which felt good, but then I have to make another, which means slogging through 6 inches of ribbing.  That's something that I can pick up at random and work on without thinking, at least.

So now there's a 3 day weekend and I have no particular plans, so I think I'll put some serious time into creating stuff for the planned yarn bombing of the library.  I was just making random blocks of odd yarns to cover the railing outside, and some hearts to string up somewhere, but some of my Yarnworks ladies are making ambitious plans and now I feel challenged to get more creative.  One plain gray block of knitting will get ears and tail and face and be a flat cat.  I can add crocheted roses to otherwise plain pieces.  Different size pompoms.  Bobbles for texture.  And one lady had a great suggestion - make a treasure hunt sheet to hand out to kids so they can look for stuff we make and scatter around the library.  I'll take pictures, put together something, and let the library hand it out.  

But not tonight.  Tonight I'll just work on that blanket and listen to my audiobook.  Tomorrow in daylight I'll root through my yarn stash and knitting pattern books and see what I can make that's quick and quirky.  Here's a sampling from the last time, which apparently was 2011:

And if you're on Facebook, come join us in the group Yarnworks of Ewing NJ.