Current state of the knitting projects

Three projects on the needles at the moment...the first is a pair of socks that I am knitting from the red/white/blue elann esprit. After I knitted the long socks I had more than a ball left, so am seizing the opportunity to make a pair of runner socks. These are really fast to make because there are only 6 rows of ribbing before the heel flap! The second sock is at the decreasing stage after the heel shaping.

The second item is the Pi Shawl. After the final increase to 576 stitches I knitted only one round then started on the border. I attempted a couple of different edgings in both directions, but after ripping back about 5 times I settled for a plain garter stitch border which is knitted sideways along the edge of the shawl, eating up a stitch every other row. Each little row is 10 stitches, and there will be 576 X 2 rows, so that makes....11,520 stitches for the border - gulp! I am hoping that as this yarn is at least 50% natural fibre, it will block flat when finished.

And finally, a bit of fun knitting with some yarn I bought ages ago on sale. I have already made two scarves as gifts out of this thick and thin yarn (NoBo), one wide and shorter, one long and skinny. I was tidying out my yarn storage drawers the other day, detangling things, sorting like yarns into bags, and throwing out some things I know I won't use. I picked out this fun yarn and needles and cast on 12 stitches. The needles were made for my kids using a dowel and clay for the knobs on the end.

I decided on a challenge to shake myself out of the knitting doldrums and taught myself how to knit garter stitch without turning the work. In other words, I knitted across the row as usual, then knitted backwards to work the next row. Certainly gets your brain working! It was just like being a beginner again, as I found that stitches were mysteriously appearing or going missing. It was fun anyway.