Wednesday, November 10, 2010

and here we go

Remember last post how I was whinging about this scarf that I was knitting that was taking FOR-EV-ER? Whelp, I finished it. I've currently got it pinned down to the blocking board and drying out, so hopefully it'll be totally done in the next few days and I can take some pretty pretty pictures of it.

In the meantime there's this crappy cameraphone shot of it stretched out. Ignore my messy crafting room.



Now do you see why I was whinging? It'd be one thing if it was just the scarf, but this sucker is knit in the round. It's warm and thick and squishy and I'm kind of in love with it. At some point I plan on knitting me a Hogwarts scarf in this same method, and I'm really super looking forward to it now. Pesky Cold Sheep. Sigh. Someday.

Anyhow! Scarf! The only downside was that the colorwork sections tended to pull in. But not by much, and I'm optimistic that the blocking will take care of it. Because blocking is magical and can fix everything. Almost anything. Well, some things. But I'm optimistic that this is one of them.

This was my first large project with colorwork in the round. The first end took me a week to do. The second only took half the time, it seemed like. Just took some getting used to, but once I fell into a rhythm it just flew.



The fingerless gloves that go along with these are nearly done as well. They just need thumbs. I wanted to wait until I could get my friend to try them on, since I've been tweaking the pattern to fit him better, and that didn't happen for a couple of weeks. However, that delay gave me time to finish up the scarf, so now I'll be able to present them both at once, yay!

It also just occured to me that I've been sadly negligent about posting FO pics here. Luckily I don't have all that many FOs to catch up on.

Firstly:

Apparition Socks. Test knit for a fellow raveler. Knit in Toefutsies in Vic-Toe-Rian which I scored on sale for half off. I'm not entirely pleased with them. The yarn is too "busy" and obscures the pattern, and the leg is a bit loose so it tends to scrunch up. Which of course further obscures the pattern. But the foot fits well, and I have knit some very lovely memories in these socks so they will not be banished to the frog pond. They will, however, probably be worn with jeans.




Secondly:

Munich Multnomah. Knit in Knipicks Imagination in Munchkin. This knit was something of an adventure. I, of course, waited until the last minute before my wedding/honeymoon trip to print out the pattern, and when I did I made the horrifying discovery that the English copy was unavailable and I couldn't read any of the translation languages. However, I picked the pattern originally because it wasn't complicated and thus would make perfect travel knitting, and I was able to cobble together a working pattern by stalking FO pics on Ravelry. I've worn it several times so far, and have gotten tons of compliments every time.



Thirdly: I FINALLY knit up my awesome Jayne hat, and have been proudly wearing it around the 'burgh. Cunning, ain't it?



After seeing me wearing knit items a couple of times, a coworker asked me to knit her something. She purchased the yarn and I'm doing the knitting in exchange for baked goods. She's a phenomenal baker, and I seem to recall the word "cupcakes" being involved in our negotiations. I'm knitting Spring Thaw in Malabrigo Sock (mmm, you see why it didn't take much to convince me to do this knit) in Abril. I am in LOVE with this colorway, and foresee myself doing another project in it for me.

So far it's been behaving itself quite nicely, which in of itself is a little suspect. Makes me wonder what might go wrong...

Oh, and a little update on Cold Sheep. I'm doing well so far, mostly thanks to Jason. Last week he bought me a couple of skeins of Malabrigo Worsted in Burgandy so I've got enough to make a pullover with the leftovers of Mom's February Lady. And that's got me thinking about NaKniSweMo. And then I recall the spectacular failure of last year in which I didn't even manage to cast on.

I think I still might give it a go. I need to rip and reknit my Lichen, which I foolishly attempted while proudly waving a banner that read "I DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' PATTERN!!" in great big glaring letters. It should be pretty obvious how that ended. Anyhow, I need to frog and reknit. It's a bulky yarn so it goes fast, and it's a top-down raglan sweater in stockinette so it's simple. Stay tuned for further adventures on that front...