Quarterly report - 2nd quarter

It's time for another one. This year seems like a fast one! You can find my previous quarterly report here.

Back to look at those 10 New Year's resolutions.

1. Knit down (some of) my stash
Well, I am knitting as much as I can. I did buy 1,6 kg of yarn from Holst Garn (versatile! with plans for projects! yes, the excuses are many) recently and 100 g of silk, but other than that no yarn has entered the flat. And I've decided to let the 4 uhm 5 baskets that currently store my yarn, WIPs, and not-yet-gifted-gifts form the limit of how much yarn I can have.
ETA: I forgot to say that I sold 8 skeins (650 g) of yarn on my destash - that gave a lot of room, too :)

2. Be less spendy and save money for more important things.
Well, a wedding came up - what can I say? If you need something to spend your on, I'll suggest getting married ;) But I guess that qualifies for 'important things' :D

3. Improve my Italian.
Yup! I went to evening classes 7 times this spring. And listened to a lot of Michel Thomas. Molto interessante ;)

4. Keep flossing.
Yup! Let's see what my dentist says on Monday...

5. Less Facebook, more reading.
The news paper reading has gone down recently, but as far as literature goes I'm doing quite well. I'm on my way through Ian McEwan's most recent novel Solar.

6. Learn how to do tubular cast on and use it.
No.

7. Keep running regularly.
Yeees. Despite a serious foot injury 5 weeks before the big race, I made it across the Øresund bridge to Sweden (half marathon, 21.1 km) in the beginning of June! 2 hours and 12 minutes is not exactly a glorious time, but being worried whether the foot would actually make it past 13 km, I'm very pleased with the result. And what a stunning route! A very nice memory. Also a bit peculiar to be running on the highway and the 4 km through the tunnel and all that. I also fulfilled my (maybe rather cautious) goal of running 10 km in less than an hour at a women's race last week. The next goals are already set: the DHL 5 km relay race in late August, another half marathon in September, and the Eremitageløbet (13 km) in October.

8. Keep doing Pilates regularly.
I think I failed at this one. Must be the nice weather. I think I'll pick it up again when winter returns.

9. Knit 12 sweaters.
I finished Daffodil, Twenty Ten, and the Rhombus Wrap (I think that qualifies as sort of a sweater!) this quarter and I have no less than 6 sweaters on the needles, all working their way towards completion at a veeeery steady pace. Knitting time hasn't been plentiful lately.

10. Knit 10 shawls.
I knit one, the Tilia. Definitely not going to accomplish this one.

With a very productive WIP Wrestling April (6 WIPs wrestled - and a new project started and finished) followed by a period where I've been switching back and forth between my numerous large projects (sweaters), I managed to finish 8 projects this quarter. (Think about it: seven projects in one month, then one project in two months...). You can see them all here:

FO: Rhombus Wrap

The Rhombus Wrap. It's been done for almost a month and I've worn it once before the weather got too hot, but never got to take any photos of it. Now I've given up on the modeled shots (just for this one) and give you these.

As you may be able to see from these two photos, it's a reversible knit and to me both sides are equally nice. I like that a lot. It's a very simple 4-row stitch pattern, but it has a great effect here, methinks.

However, the best thing about it may be that I found the perfect use of this slightly variegated yarn - Laura 4ply from Posh Yarn in a delicious red colourway called Sassy. I've learnt that I'm not really fond of variegated yarns in sweater-sized knits. Semisolids are alright, but when sprinkled with another colour like this one is (a bit of golden yellow here and there), I don't like it. My Buttercup II was knit in the same yarn, and I don't really like the variegation here. So why does it suddenly work here? There are two reasons:
1) I paired it with a yarn in a solid colour (Holst Garn in Poppy)
2) The stitch pattern was like made for a bit of variegation. I think it's because it has these accentuated stitches that these golden sparks look great in there.

I think it's time for the info part:

Pattern: Rhombus Wrap from Ori Ami Knits
Yarn: 1 strand of Posh Yarn Laura 4 ply (80% merino, 20% cashmere) in Sassy (discontinued; Rav link) + 1 strand of Holst Garn in Poppy (love that colour!)
Needles: 5.0 mm

Hot or not? I think fairly hot. It's not my Cabled Spiral Pullover or Pine, but I think once the colder temperatures return it'll be great for wearing round the office!