Starry Starry Night

Not much of a show or tell this week, I'm afraid. I have been working religiously on Celaeno, but the first chart is 99% garter stitch so it's not very exciting to talk about or show. However, it is very exciting to knit, because beads are to be placed randomly throughout the garter stitch section. I attempted to randomly place beads myself, but despite years of evidence to the contrary, it appears I am inherantly unrandom. I downloaded a random number generator app for my iPhone, so I've been using that. I've been extremely liberal with the bead placement. I had so much fun for the first two repeats that I didn't even realize how heavily I was beading (I had my random number generator set out to max at 7) until I put it down and thought, wow...that's a lot.



I was watching Project Runway as I was knitting on this and I had a crisis of confidence about the "taste level" so I posted it to the Romi forum on Ravelry to see if I was maybe going a little overboard. The response was overwhelmingly in favor of holding the course, so I kept going. I've started spacing them a bit more as the rows get longer (and I run out of beads, and I actually like the way the blank spots give it character. I'm on the last repeat of the first chart - and on my last container of beads. Methinks I need to order more. A lot more.







I've been completely neglecting all my other projects, except Esplanade. I've reached the point where the ribbed brim is turned under and joined with the rest of the hat.



It's a fiddly but very clever process. Here's the inside of the hat, where you can see the hidden brim.



Very nifty, and now I have a big swath of plain knitting before I get to the crown decreases. Perfect for hockey knitting - the Caps have their first game on Wednesday. Unfortunately, I'll be at choir practice (also prime plain knitting time). Even so, there is a whole season of hockey knitting in my future, so it will be good to have some plain projects going. I'm thinking I will make another Esplanade in the reverse colors once this one is done.