Fake Spring

Sure, it's sunny out there, but it's still pretty cold. You'd think that'd be a good thing for a person who loves yarn as much as I do, but frankly, Winter came early and has overstayed its welcome.

The blue jacket thingy was ripped out and I now have three pretty cakes of yarn. I might get to it after I finish this hat. I needed to rip out the hat too because there was too much hat and not enough brim.

So, after the changes, will I have enough Origami to finish the hat? We shall see.

Things I'm knitting along to: The Daily Show and Tom Holt's Little People.

I really dislike the Adobe ereader program. At least the Mac version. It won't flip pages properly or keep the font size or even remember the last page! I hope it works better on a Nook.

Tangled Yarn

Yes, I am one of those strange people who likes untangling yarn. But this weekend I've done my share of it and I'd like to be done for a while!

I much prefer untangling yarn for other people! It's much more satisfying. The Knitter's Retreat was just splendid. I worked on the hat, which may become a proper pattern. I started doing something with what used to be the Stinky Green Yarn and has become the Evil Green Yarn because it became a tangled mess that took me over four hours to untangle. I started knitting with it Saturday night and worked about two inches and then ran into a ball of knots that was still attached to the cake, so I yanked that out and two tangled blobs plopped out. bluh.

I don't know how long I tried to untangled it on Saturday, but Sunday morning I started in after breakfast (I'm guessing around 9am) and by 1pm it was all untangled and balled up.

And now I'm slightly obsessed by the flower jacket thingy. It was almost done, but would have been too small and so I never finished it. Well, I've decided I don't like it and so I'm ripping it out. I have ideas for how to rearrange it.

I am still under the delusion that I can write a proper pattern. And I can't really post much about it because I have a mad notion to submit it to Knitty. We shall see.

maybe a decision...

I can't settle on a pattern for the Stinky Green Yarn. You'd think that a mottled green metallic yarn and a pattern called Mermaid's Mesh would just beg to be put together, right? meh. Not so much. I almost settled on Pearl Barred Scallop, but then I remembered this stitch I came up with yonks ago and decided to play with that. I think I like it.






I know that's a crappy picture and it's not in the green yarn, but I like it. It's mesh-y, but light and sproingy. And the pattern is easy to remember - the Mermaid's Mesh wasn't difficult, but was very easy to lose track of which row I was doing.

I also found my notes for a hat idea using this stitch. I never knew what to do for a brim and so never did anything with that idea. But I've done a few hats lately that had a nice knitted brim and so I think I might try some Noro and play.

(almost) The Ides of March

I really need to finish the Second Blue Sock, but Sock Ennui has set in. I happily knitted around, doing the ankle gusset decreases until they were all done and bam. Sock Boredom. Because I seem to enter some weird Twilight Zone where no matter how many rows I knit, it's merely five inches from the heel. Knit some more. Five inches.

Eventually I get to 7.5 and do the toe decreases, but I need to download a new book or something to entertain me. I am re-watching the last few Doctor Who eps, so that could entertain me for a while, but I really do need to decide on a new book.

Next sock will be with new yarn from Crystal Palace: Sausalito. Love the colours and it's very soft and squishy. It's one of those funky yarns where one ply is a certain colour and the other ply is a different colour and both of them shift. It creates a lovely marled effect and I've already cast on a sock because the Blue Sock is boring. :)

However, I will finish that sock, hopefully today, because I want to cast on the Stinky Green Yarn and work on it a bit before taking it to the Knitting Retreat this weekend *yay*

The pattern as written in the book is a wee bit confusing, possibly because the picture for the pattern is on the previous page? I'm not sure. I perused so many patterns before settling on two possibles: Vine Lace Zigzag or Mermaid's Mesh. It was the description in Mermaid's Mesh that finally chose for me: That 'worked in glittering metallic yarn' it would look great. I'm using Blue Heron Metallic in Granny Smith Apple greens.

I am still really tempted by Vine Lac Zigzag though, but perhaps that'd be best in a different yarn. It might be a lovely possibility for some Ella Rae fingering yarn.

OK, one more pattern to try: Checkerboard Mesh.

Updates

Yay! She liked her handwarmers! And now I'm working on the headband, which is what she really wanted, and I'm not crazy about it. The yarn is yummy, I wouldn't have had enough of the dark grey, so I got a skein of light grey to go with it. Maybe that's why or maybe this pattern just needs some slight variegation? I dunno, it's just boring, but I do hope she likes it. Also, I think it may be wider than she wanted it to be. But, she wanted a button, otherwise I would have made the scrunchy type version I saw at Glenda's. Maybe I'll shoot her a message and ask her if a button is totally necessary.

Finished one Blue Sock and two downloaded books! OK, so they were just short, fluffy paperbacks, but I rather enjoyed being able to read and knit at the same time. Of course, now I need something new to read and I don't know what to go for.

Have decided to wait two days for the new Jasper Fforde Thursday Next book, instead of downloading all the old ones at $12 each. I don't mind paying paperback-ish prices, but that's a bit steep, just to refresh my memory. I found a JF book on the library download thingy, so I'm gonna read that.

I think I may have enough yarn in the light grey to do this pattern. I also think I'd like to add the mock cables in the middle. Maybe. gotta finish it and count rows.

More socks!

I finished Dev's socks last Friday, he promptly put them on and I don't think he's taken them off since. I hope that means that he likes them and he's not merely too lazy to do laundry.

So I'm working on another pair for him. I didn't buy new yarn, I made him pick from the first three balls I could find. He chose the Trekking pro natura denim blue. It's quite nice to knit with, seems a bit thin. I hope it's durable.

I've waffled for a while now about buying an ereader thingy. They just don't seem very book-like. But I've often wondered whether I could knit and read at the same time if I had a book that would stay open and turning pages wasn't too difficult. So I downloaded the Nook and Kindle apps for my Macbook. Someone at the yarn shop had a Nook and I quite liked it and I've played a bit with the Kindle, but didn't like it as much - However, of the two apps I preferred the Kindle app. And so I chose a book, paid for it and downloaded it and less than a minute later was reading the thing. I've gotta say, that part is just awesome. The book is likely in stock at my local Borders and I even have a coupon for that store, but to be able to read the thing right after I ordered it? That was just splendid. And I can knit rather easily while reading off a screen. It wasn't much of a bother to keep bumping the button for the next page either, although I'm doing a sock, so in short time I have to turn my work.

But, it shows promise and for now I'll just stick to using the Macbook. I even took it to bed last night and that wasn't so bad.

Stinky Yarn is still stinky, although it's almost tolerable now. Used the Eucalan (eucalyptus version) and that helped. Hung it outside yesterday and it got it to 'almost tolerable'. It's hanging out again today and it's quite windy, so I hope it gets less stinky and doesn't blow away.