Woohoo!

It is with immense glee that I move the columns scarf from the "On the Needles" list to the "Completed Projects" list. It's done!!

It is actually a few inches short of my goal of 5 feet...but I ran out of yarn. Not the nutmeg, which is what I thought would happen, but the moss!! The pattern requirements said I would need 2 balls of each to make a 72" scarf. LIES. It took 3 balls of the moss (main color) and 2 of the nutmeg, and even with the third ball, again, I only made it to about 57 inches or so. I didn't really measure once I ran out of yarn.

Anyway, it is finished and put away for the opportune moment. I didn't bother to take a picture since it pretty much looks just like the picture I posted earlier, only longer.

Once I finished it I worked on my cape. I immediately discovered that I had misread the directions, and ended up having to rip back twenty rows or so. I continued to have problems with it throughout the evening, almost entirely due to my inability to count. I'm a little concerned now that the finished border section will look wierd, because my increases are not all in the right place, but...I'm not going back and doing it again, so I'll live with it. :oP It's really frustrating to have nobody to blame but myself. Lessons I have learned during this time:

--I am too stupid to follow directions that say 'do this 9 more times' without assistance. From now on, I will acknowledge my stupidity immediately and write out next to each line of instructions the row numbers on which I am supposed to follow that particular instruction. I do think it is especially mean of the pattern designers to nest these things by saying things like 'row 5-6 repeat rows 3-4' and then 'repeat 1-6 nine more times.'
--I don't work well with the rowcounters that you have to turn to increase. I am better off with the ones you hit on the top that make a fun clicky noise.
--I need to take better notes when walking away from a project for a while.
--Alpaca sheds like a mofo.

The last is kind of disappointing...wearing my fetching cape will be a lot less fun if I have to have a lint roller in my pocket to use every time I take it off. I am trying not to think about this for now.

I'm waiting on some measurements for my friend for her Urban Necessity set and then I will get started on that. I was seriously tempted to start the Dimple Shale scarf because that yarn is so luscious, but I am afraid of another bout of scarf boredom. I hope it wouldn't be as big of an issue since this will be lace which should be more interesting...but I fear that it will still be a problem. :oP Maybe I will just make it a short little thing that she can tuck in her jacket. We'll see.

Photos

Pretty, yes? I'm in love.

In the meantime, I'm making progress on the columns scarf, but it feels like it will never end:



45" and counting.

And, while I'm at it, an FO - the candy wrapper sachets from One Skein. Only 2 out of the three - I dropped one in the car and haven't gotten it out yet. Plain stockinette on the left, diamond pattern on the right. Next time, a less busy yarn would be best - this is Old Rose from Cherry Tree Hill.

Yummy colors

The Paris Rain socks are so pretty...right now they are half grey-brown and half green-blue. I've made it through the inch of ribbing and started on the stockinette last night. Ah, the beauty and quickness of those simple round and rounds! I can't wait to see what they will look like.

I have read about things like flashing and pooling and puddling, and have made up my mind not to care if that happens on this pair. I do worry about running out of yarn before the pair is complete, but I am hoping that is just paranoia.

Paranoia caused by the number of times recently I have run out of yarn!!

Well. We'll see. I have decided not to bother casting on both socks at once (which may be a mistake given the afforementioned worry about running out of yarn) because I am lazy and I was having too much fun with the first one.

Scarf is at 42 inches. I am literally inching along on this thing. I may have to wash it before I give it to BG. My aunt is visiting; she is a smoker carries this smell around with her and leaves it on everything she touches. As BG is not a smoker I don't think he will appreciate having his scarf tainted with eau de nicotine.

Also, I want to make totally sure of how the thing behaves in the wash before I give it to him.

Yarn for Urban Necessity is on the way...and I am kind of kicking myself for not ordering enough to make a scarf as well. I have a thing about complete sets. I'm already contemplating how I could make this darn scarf pattern into a matching hat. Because after just over 3 feet I am not sick enough of this stitch pattern yet. I'm telling you, it's a curse. If you get a hat from me, you know your next two gift giving holidays will consist of a pair of gloves and a scarf. I am obsessed with like sets.

After this relative visit is over, I hope to get my craft room set up, including my camera and tripod so that I can start adding pictures to this blog. It feels all naked without any.

So close, yet so far

The scarf is 40 inches and I've joined in the third ball of Moss. Only 20 inches to go - and yet, it seems like such a long way. I've got a lot going on at home now with visiting relatives. I've missed my deadline to get this done - BG's birthday was this past Thursday - but as we've all got a lot going on right now we put off the formal birthday celebration for a bit. If I can get this done before my family leaves I think I will be safe, but I won't know for sure how much time I have until we set a formal birthday party date.

Last night right before I went to bed I cast on a pedicure sock in Artyarns Supermerino, colorway Paris Rain. I think it's beautiful so far, though I've only got a couple of rows done. I feel a little guilty for starting it, but I felt like I needed something quick and simple to make me feel better about how long all my complicated projects are taking me. Besides, everybody does socks while doing other projects, right? Right?

I started to try casting both socks on at once, but I was tired and it seemed like too much work. I guess I could put this sock on a holder, do a couple of rows on the other sock, and then put them both back on my circs.

I'm using my addi turbo needles and after using the knitpicks options - the tips seem SO blunt!! It's actually really bothering me! I may have to switch...it's driving me nuts. I'm sure I'll get used to them again eventually, but having been accustomed to one, switching to the other is difficult. I had problems when I switched from the addis to the options for the same reason, in the other direction.

Ah well...

Wants

In all my listening to knitting podcasts and reading knitting blogs and perusing the knitter's review forum, I have come up with a number of things that I really, really want to do.

--Knit a lace shawl.
--Become a sock knitter.
--Knit something with Sea Silk.
--Knit something in whatever yarn anybody is gushing about or showing pictures of on their blog.
--Get some silk laceweight from Sundara Yarn.

And many more. Every time I see a yarn on the Yarn Harlot blog I SO TOTALLY WANT SOME. But I'm always stopped, either by the price or because I don't know what I would use it for so I'm afraid of not buying enough for what I need. I don't have any idea how much the average yardage is even for a pair of socks. I need more experience.

I looked up a few patterns for my friend's project and sent them to her along with yarn possibilities so that she could pick something and find a color she liked. I haven't heard anything back from her. I'm hoping she will pick Urban Necessity from MagKnits, but I don't know if she will like it or not. We'll see I guess!

Columns Scarf is at 31 inches and change. Sigh.

Not how I planned

Saturday, I put six inches on the scarf, and thought gleefully about how wonderful it would be if I could get it up to 3 feet by the end of the weekend.

Unfortunately, I'm having trouble sleeping in the bed I am using while I house-and-dog-sit, so I didn't get very far on Sunday. A few feeble rows - I haven't measured but I bet it was less than an inch. I fell asleep on the couch for a couple of hours instead. It's probably just as well as my right hand was starting to get grumpy again and I'd probably have had a claw by Sunday night if I'd accomplished all I'd cackled about possibly doing.

One of my friends just sighed (metaphorically speaking, it was a blog entry) about wanting pretty things (she is a student and only has enough budget for the practical, not the pretty, and sometimes not even that) and I gave her a bunch of links to pattern resources and said "here, pick something pretty, and I will knit it for you." I am alternately concerned that she will not like anything, and that she will pick something huge and/or complicated that will take me the rest of my life. I guess I will just live dangerously until I get a reply.

A wrong turn or two and $20 later, I'm finally able to get the images off my memory card!

I am not inexperienced at photography but I am totally inexperienced at photographing knitted items. I need more practice.

Sideways progress

I did some work on the scarf for BG, but only a few rows at a time throughout the weekend. He was at my house in the evening on Saturday to watch a movie, and though I probably could have worked on the scarf without generating any questions, I decided not to take the chance. I hid it in my room and got out my Homespun Cape project instead. I almost hate to call it that because I am not using the Lion Brand Homespun to make it, but that's what the pattern is called. I am using Knit Picks Decadence in tan. Anyway, I got a couple of inches done on that, which was nice. Things I knit for myself tend to take a backseat to things I am knitting for other people, so working on something for me is a nice change. Also, it is a simple pattern and it is a nice break from the more complicated scarf.

I was a little aggravated because the yarn shed all over me as I was working it. This is an annoying feature in something designed to be worn over clothes. I'll just have to make sure to keep a lint roller on my person at all times, I guess.

I did take photographs of my WIPs but I have not been able to find my memory card reader to get the photos from my camera to the computer. I'm very frustrated. I know I have had it out since the move, and my computer has only been in a few places in the house. I have checked all of these places and everywhere else I can think of, but I can't find that darned reader. I may have to just get a new one. I'm really miffed, too, I got a nice picture that shows the texture of the columns scarf that I was really excited to post.

Famous last words

I should have known better when I said yesterday it would be hard to make mistakes without realizing it on the column's scarf. I got some work done in it yesterday and somehow managed to trip into one of the ways that you CAN screw it up. I'm not entirely sure what I did, but the stitches that make the columns got veeeeery twisted, and I didn't realize it for a couple of rows until I looked and said "Hey...that's not what it ususally looks like." Since I couldn't really figure out what I did I just frogged a couple of rows and picked it up again. I got the stitches untwisted and sorted out and it looks back to normal now.

I've got a little over two inches of scarf, which kind of has me worried that I won't finish in time, but I'll try not to think about it until next week at least. Then I can evaluate where I am and decide whether I can finish in time, or if I am actually going to have to buy a gift.

Unfortunately, I also really need to spend the next couple of weeks getting ready for my mother's visit. The guest room is not yet unpacked and put to rights from the move, there's painting that needs to be finished and a million other things I would like to do to make the house look acceptable before she comes. This could cut into the knitting time that I really need to get this done.

Echo (echo, echo, echo)

Coming to this blog to post is like walking into a huge empty room with really echoy floors. Freaky. I guess I'll get used to it eventually.

I started work on the Columns scarf last night, and it...didn't go well the first time. I cast on and got through two rows, and ended up with five or six more stitches than I was supposed to have. I thought about it, decided where the problem was, ripped out those two rows, and started again. It went much better this time.

The pictures on the pattern are really not high res enough to show much detail so I really wasn't sure how the stitch pattern would come out. One might ask, if there were anyone here to wonder, why I decided to do it if I didn't know how it would turn out. I don't really know - the picture looked kind of cool and it was more interesting than doing a plain rib scarf or a garter stitch scarf.

I had some trouble when I had to skip one stitch, knit into the second stitch, and then knit into the first stitch and slip both off. I think part of the reason I picked up extra stitches on my first attempt was that I wasn't slipping the both stitches off.

The second round I made sure that wasn't a problem, but it is still a little difficult to get the needle under all the plies of the yarn without spearing through it. The rest of the pattern is fairly easy, though, and the really good thing about it is that it is difficult to make a mistake and not catch it right away, because it is immediately obvious if the stitches don't line up vertically the way they are supposed to.

I'm concerned that the scarf isn't wide enough, and also that I may not finish in time, but I'm trying not to fret. Sbodd thinks it is plenty wide.

I think this pattern would make a really great edging on a plain garter scarf or other garment, so I'm definately not throwing it away once this is finished

Delivery!

Woo hoo, my yarn has departed the Warehouse of Sitting Around for Three Days, which means it should be delivered this afternoon. Phew!! This yarn is for a scarf for BG's birthday so I was really anxious for it to get here. I SHOULD have plenty of time to get it done (his birthday is on the 23rd), but every little bit helps when you're on a deadline.

It's this scarf in Swish DK, nutmeg and moss.

I wish their picture was a little better (though the expression on the model's face is kind of hysterical) so I could see how the colors go, but the two colors they used are so similar that it's hard to tell. I hope it will look okay with yarns that use more of a contrast.