Spring project progress

Each month, I have set a goal for myself of finishing two projects in my Ravelry queue. I was a few days late with my second April project, but I eventually got there with this Match & Move scarf by Martina Behm.

I went with an all German/Austrian motif here - it's Austrian yarn bought in Vienna and knitted with a German pattern. I bought the yarn at just about the cutest little yarn shop in Vienna, Wolle Wien, which I visited in September. The pattern is by a German pattern designer whose shop name - Strickmich, or, "Knit me" - I love.

The pattern was acres of knitting - all garter stitch - so I reformed my plan to do an all-garter-stitch fingering weight poncho next. I needed a break to do something chunky (more on that in a minute).

Yarn Con 2018!!

This past weekend was my favorite of the year: YarnCon in Chicago. I just love seeing the colors, the local vendors, and feeling the beautiful fibers.

I met up with some coworkers and shopped until we dropped. Actually, none of us did too much damage this year, except for one coworker (not pictured) who ended up dropping $300+ because it was her first YarnCon experience and she got a little excited. (No judgment.)

I bought two sets of yarn for two different projects. The first was a bulky merino yarn from Another Crafty Girl in a black-gray-red colorway called, wait for it, "High Functioning Psychopath." Ha!

The project is for a scarf for my good friend Mike, one of my best friends from high school, AND my former prom date, AND he does my taxes practically for free every year. So I figure I owe him. (Plus this colorway looks like our high school colors, which I am down for.)

It's knitting up in a vaguely plaid way, which I am kind of digging.

The other project is yet another tricolor fingering weight shawl. Ever since dining at The Boarding House in Chicago, I have wanted to make a shawl inspired by the colors in their main dining room: light gray, deep turquoise, and olive. I found perfect yarns at three different YarnCon vendors:

So I'm trying to finish the Lincoln-Way black & red scarf by my friend's birthday next week, and that (plus another dish cloth I made) will count as my two projects for April, even though technically the black & red scarf wasn't in my queue originally. Gotta help out a friend in need.

Happy spring, everyone!