Labors over Labor Day Weekend

I made some progress over the weekend on a few projects, and had the gratification of moving some of the tickers forward a little. So far, this ticker thing is working pretty well; it really is motivating me to work on only the projects I currently have up there. Of course, this means that I am spending less time swatching and daydreaming, but then again I spend a lot of time daydreaming, and I'll go back to more swatching after I get some of these projects done.
Butterfly Top:

This is the "Butterfly" pattern by Katie Himmelberg from the Spring '07 issue of Knitscene. I am making it in Berroco Bonsai, so mine is going to have quite a different feel from the one in the magazine just by virtue of using a different bamboo yarn (my working title for it is "Glam Rock"). Normally, I don't go for shiny gold but this was the only color of Bonsai that the LYS had enough of-- and then it really ended up growing on me. Now I like my golden top, and hopefully I'll still like it once I try it on.

As you can see, this yarn photographs a LOT better when I don't have to use the flash.
I'm knitting both of the top pieces at once-- the strand of red yarn is marking the last decrease row (I love using this method to mark "last rows" -- very handy.)

Babette is getting bigger:

I finished strip no. 8 and added it to the blanket, so now I have only two more strips of squares before I can block and edge. The strips are all getting exponentially larger because this is assembled in log cabin fashion, so the addition of the three most recent strips has made quite a difference in size, as you can see compared with my previous post on this project.

Hanami:

The beaded cast-on did take a while, but I enjoyed it and the effect was worth it. I got Czech fired-glass beads for this stole, which are more expensive than the clear glass seed beads called for in the pattern, but I already had some of these in my stash and, fortunately, one of the bead stores in my neighborhood had some more that matched almost exactly. I bought some more because I was a few short of what I needed for the beaded cast-on, and I am also going to add some to the body of the stole.

And, one of the really old UFOs is done:

This is a crocheted blanket that I completed over a year ago, but before I added the edging it got relegated to the UFO pile. This was a sale-yarn special (the type of thing you make when you get a really great deal on yarn, get it home, and then wonder what the hell you are going to do with it.) I didn't count this in my yarn stash inventory because it was one of two blankets for which I couldn't estimate the yardage with sufficient accuracy. The other one is a throw for my Mom, who got the unfinished throw for Christmas, and who has been reminding me ever since that I owe her the finished item. So, I anticipate that this other stash-exception item will be done as soon as I can bear weaving in the hundred-plus yarn ends (I hated that project!!)

I've also taken one of the WIP tickers off the sidebar because I've decided that I'm not going to do that project with any of my stash yarns; I still want to make it but I need to give more consideration to my yarn choice (SWTC Bamboo is the top contender so far, but because I would have to buy all new yarn for it, this has become a potential reward project.) The yarn I bought for the Ingrid-- Silky Wool-- is currently under consideration for one of two knit cardigans, but I want to get the tickers down to a reasonable number before I start swatching.