WIP Wednesday: Navona Cardigan

Decided to be a cliche this week and post a WIP Wednesday.

I started the Navona Cardigan on the 1st of February with the Woolly Mammoth Knits KAL, which you can find at the link below on Ravelry.

http://www.ravelry.com/groups/woolly-mammoth-knits

I used some stash fingering weight yarn I received as a gift from the lovely knitters in Ithaca (Thanks again! I am currently making plans among plans to use all the colorful yarn you gave me!)

The main color is Dove Heather colorway of Knit Picks Stroll, of which I have 5 balls.

The contrast color is a beautiful turquoise in Brown Sheep Wildefoote.

It's proved to be a very good "multi-tasking" project.  I've worked on it while listening to podcasts, watching the super bowl, listening to lectures and therefore got a good chunk done already.

This is not the most updated photo (probably about half of what is actually done) but I've been lazy and haven't gotten a new photo yet

I've gotten to the point where I divide for the sleeves and then I will start the first stripe of color, which after all that grey, I'll welcome :)

I have paused on it, because though it is probably a stupid question, I'm not sure what kind of yarn is best to use for waste yarn.  Normally I just use whatever I have available but what I have is worsted weight or a very thin/weak fingering weight that broke on me the last time I used it as waste yarn. Most of my stash is at home (I'm at school right now) so I don't have a lot of options as to what to use.  

Do you have yarn you specifically use for waste yarn or do you just use leftovers?

What characteristics make a good waste yarn?

Works in Progress: August Edition

Some knitters cast on a project and stay faithful right through the end.  I, on the other hand, am a very unfaithful knitter who likes to jump around between projects, possibly leaving a project untouched for weeks or months only to come back and be unsure where I left off.   I've tried to focus more on the already started projects and make some progress on them.

I can't only work on one project at a time because sometimes I want something challenging that requires almost full attention, like Lacy December Scarf:

But sometimes I need something mindless because I'm hanging out with friends chatting and I know I'll lose count of which row I'm on, such as Smittens:

And sometimes I need something that I can start and finish in a day or two because everything else is becoming too much of a chore, like my newest finished object, Cotton Candy Hat (which I'm including in my works in progress because it went so quick it hardly had a chance to be a WIP):

I almost always have a pair of socks on the needles, like Texture Socks, though I messed them up royally and need to restart them:

And when, amongst all the other projects I have on the needles I have the time, I'll cast on with a group from Ravelry to create something that is a mystery right up to the end.  Here is a photo of the first August Mystery project so far:

I have no idea what it is, but my guess is a cat scarf.  What do you think?