Can you say "gung-ho"?

Last night I cast on for the hemlock ring blanket. I ventured into the land of magic loop (for the first time ever!) successfully on my shiny new 40" size 10 Inox needle. I am very happy with my purchase. It was very affordable and is doing an excellent job. I knit like I was possessed.

Today is day two of knitting, and I have passed 57 rounds on the blanket - 216 stitches currently on the needle. this is a very satisfying knit. I stopped just to take and edit a (crappy) photo and update on the progress. I'm going to have to wind up another ball here tonight!

I know that people who have knit this blanket have said that it goes fast, but I didn't imagine this. Once you get past the initial flower, there's one row of increases and decreases for the feather and fan pattern, and then 4 rows of plain knit. This makes for great T.V. knitting. I pay attention for one row out of 5 and it's flying by.

Because this is going by so much faster than I anticipated, I think I might cast on for my third pair of endpaper mitts sometime within the next two days. Those usually take a couple of weeks of non-diligent knitting to knock out, and they need to be done ASAP. One thumb on glove one (or three) for Nathan and that's done...and then the real challenge of the season will be to do the print 'o the wave stole for my grandparents.

Ever since I had my wonderfully quick repeat worked (12 rows) I haven't touched it. That's the next big thing on the list after the blankety goodness is done. Here I go to work on it! ...and then wind some more yarn! One skein in a day (ish?) I don't know what has gotten into me, but it feels great.