Back to knitting

It is strange how one's mind perceives an activity as being interesting or boring at different points in time. Case in point: I would have considered bread baking really boring a year ago. I am currently knitting, gardening and baking. A year ago I was only knitting and knitting much more passionately than I am right now. A few weeks ago, my brain was classifying knitting as boring and requiring more concentration than I could drum up. Now it is acceptable.

I am almost done with one of the mittens. I had to do some ripping out as I am a perfectionist when it comes to published items. The ribbing is a 2x2 rib with an odd single knit thrown in. Those knits become very stretched out for me. Sometimes, it helps to wrap the yarn the opposite way after the knit st but even that wasn't enough for this ribbing. I decided to wrap the opposite way before and after the knit st and that seemed to help. But the biggest benefit was that I didn't accidentally forget that I wasn't doing 2x2 rib at that point. Before I started wrapping the opposite way, I was getting into a rhythm and happily doing 2x2 rib all the way around and then having to fix the error on the next round. Since the two purl sts bracketing the knit st were presented with the leading leg in the back, I had to work them differently and this made me less error-prone. So even if you don't need the lazy or Eastern purl for neatness, it helps to keep the pattern on track. I don't necessarily find that the Eastern purl makes the knit st all that neat but I leave you to judge for yourself. You can see the single column of rib in the middle of the photograph below.
Once the second mitten is done, the next item up on the queue is the cover sweater from the current VK. It is knit sideways across the more solid part and then one picks up and does the lacy part on top. I am going to make it longer and make the button band all the way down to the bottom. There are better pictures on Ravelry, if you are a member.
I am knitting it in Rowan Purelife cotton in Brazilwood rather than the Tahki Sky used in the magazine. Sky is a worsted weight yarn and I thought that was rather heavy for a summer knit. So I am going to make it in a DK weight. It will involve some recalculation of the st counts but it is a fairly simple shape so it shouldn't be difficult.