My daughter gave me this knitting pattern book by Hitomi Shida for Christmas and I am finally trying out one of the patterns (#50). This will be a cardigan with an empire waistline with lace on the lower part and stockinette on rest. I'm going to knit the lace pattern portion by hand and hang the pieces on the knitting machine for the stockinette portion. I don't usually hand knit from charts so this is going pretty slowly. I imagine it will speed up as I get used to reading the large chart and quit losing my place and knitting the wrong row.
Other projects in the works are the oblong mat for the coffee table (really an old handmade trunk with a flat top that my husband's great-grandparents used when they immigrated to this country), another pair of socks, and new for me, crocheting an edging on a fleece afghan that my husband requested. I'll have to get one of those rotary cutter blades that cut slits around the edge to crochet into. The spouse wants an afghan that is almost 3 yards long so he can nap on the couch in supreme comfort.
