Projects in progress and stalled

If ever there was a year where I don't complete NaNoWriMo it's this one.  Too much going on to have brain real-estate tied up with a novel.  I may stage a dramatic comeback mid-month but it's not looking very likely today.  I'm sad because I have an eight year streak of NaNoWriMo wins.  I'm still keeping my regional stats page though.

I have three knitting projects on my needles, which is more than I usually like:

Deco cardigan
Working my way up the single piece that makes up fronts and back, adding Deco pattern repeats as I go.  The increase in needle size and pattern size seems to be working and I'm confident this will fit over a shirt comfortably.  I also made it a bit longer and omitted the decrease/increase shaping. I'm not up to where I was before the Great Ripping Out of 2012, but I'm over halfway there and I still have five 200yd skeins of yarn to knit.  The fabric feels good, the stitch definition is nice, I like this a lot.  Planning to do the button band before the arms so I can get a better idea of fit.  Might be done by year end but I'm not betting on it.

Tiled-In Topper hat
This is a simple stranded colourwork hat.  Stranded knitting is something I'm not good at and it makes me very nervous.  I've tried to make colourwork mittens before and they came out horribly loose, a different attempt came out so dense it had its own gravitational field.  For the hat I'm using a self-striping red/purple sock yarn with cream for the accent colour.  Stalled after the hem because I need a nice uninterrupted stretch to work on it and I'm not going to get that for a while.

Treacle Hedgerows socks
I've only finished one pair of socks this year and that was back in April, which is odd for me.  The yarn has been sitting in my stash box since 2010 and it's past time it earned its keep.  Dragonfly Fibers Djinni sock is a thin merino cashmere nylon blend and the colour of this makes me think of looking into a tin of golden syrup.  I've made the Hedgerow pattern before and liked it, but those socks were gifted.  I deviated from the pattern early by putting a hemmed top on because it gets around my difficulties in making the cast-on edge loose enough to get over my heel.  This is mostly mindless knitting to keep me occupied.