A flock of FOs: Striped socks, Iced, and Clarissa.

One thing about having multiple projects on the needles, is that if they all get finished about the same time, it makes one look like a prodigiously productive knitter. Of course, that generally means they've all been on the needles for some time, making one look like a prodigious piker.

Three projects just came off the needles -- one very long term, one that I cast on in the summer, and one that was cast on in November.

I'll start with the one that's been around the longest. Not the most complicated. Actually the most simple. Just a pair of plain stockinette socks, using the sock recipe from Knitting Rules by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, in self-striping yarn that I dyed myself from a KnitPicks sock blank.

The only reason they took a long time is that I like to keep a pair of plain socks in self-patterning yarn on the needles to pick up at odd moments, so they only get worked on here and there. But now they're done.

Next up, let's look at Iced, a cardigan from a past issue of Knitty. I bought three fat skeins of Cascade Eco+ when a local yarn shop went out of business, and used about half of it to make this cardigan.

It's an easy, comfy, cozy cardigan to throw on when it's chilly. Goes well with jeans.

May need a little more blocking in the back, though.

And finally, the showpiece. Last summer at Sock Summit 2011, I was going by the Sanguine Gryphon booth when I came to a full stop in front of this:

Had to have. Had... to... have. I was directed to the White Lies Designs booth, where I found the pattern for the Clarissa cardigan. The Gryphon didn't have enough of the yarn that the sample was made from in either the ruby red or the deep purple that I liked, so I wandered around until I found a beautiful BFL DK from Fly Designs.

I cast on shortly after Sock Summit. Just before Christmas, I finished.

The front:

The back:

It still needs a little more blocking across the shoulders so the buttons don't pull in front quite so much. But Clarissa is finished, hoorah, hoorah!

Here's a close-up of the honeybee lace if anyone tackling this project needs a closer look. It's actually much easier than it looks at first, since it involves a logical series of decreases:

Feels good to have all of these done -- then on to the next projects!