WIP Wednesday: Selfish Knitting Edition

After the last several months of knitting primarily for others, I am very happy to indulge in a little selfish knitting for the start of this year. I haven't made too many resolutions for 2013 thus far, but I do know this: I need to knit myself more sweaters this year. It just needs to happen. I also would like to fold this in with another ongoing goal I challenge myself with each year: destashing! I have many sweater's-worth quantities of yarn in my stash, and it's criminal that they haven't become beautiful wardrobe staples by now.

I finished the lacy top I was knitting with Bijou Basin Ranch's yak/silk laceweight yarn, Shangri-La (thought I still need to photograph it and share it with the world at large), so I decided to cast on for another dolman-style top using some sock yarn for my stash and breaking my cardigans-only rule for sweater-making yet again. Go figure!

While I'd love to make the Roxborough Dolman with the yarn specified, Canopy Fingering from The Fibre Company, I thought I'd try shopping from my stash this time around (that makes more room for future yarn purchases, right?!). Naturally, I didn't quite have enough yardage for the main color lurking in my stash, so I decided to get a little creative, using a leftover skein of Malabrigo Sock for contrasting ribbed bands, then mixing a skein of Anzula Squishy in Clay and Shalimar Zoe Sock in Loden for the body of the sweater. I'm not very far along, but I like the way the colors are playing together so far!

No, really - this is my Panoramic Stole.

I've also made modest progress on my Panoramic Stole - plus I tracked down another skein of Malabrigo Sock in Chocolate Amargo, which turned out to be a more difficult task that I would have imagined. Apparently this is a very popular color, as most places I checked (Doodlebug Yarn, Webs, Jimmy Beans Wool, etc) were completely sold out of it! I finally located a skein at Eat. Sleep. Knit., so I placed an order last Friday and it arrived promptly on Monday afternoon.

I finished the first cycle of mesh patterning and short-row shaping; already it's becoming difficult to photograph. This will definitely take several months to complete; my guess is the destash dolman will be done long before I even reach the halfway point on this stole. It will definitely be worth it, though, as I'm sure I'll get plenty of use out of the stole once it's complete. Any bets on when that might reasonably occur?

Don't forget to check out more awesome bloggage (that's a word now) by visiting Tami's Amis for WIP Wednesday shenanigans!!