More things off the needles

I'm glad to be clearing out WIPs. It gives me more time to work on my upcoming deadlines.

So, here's my Evening Star Cowl finished up and off of my new blocking mats.

I'm not completely happy with the picture, but there was no way to get a decent one with the sun glare the way it was (and my hair, as usual, looks terrible!)

I wore it to church this morning -- it's nice as a light hood to supplement a hat on cold days or to 'line' the hood of my coat. It's not super-warm, but I wasn't expecting it to be.

 It also keeps the cold from coming down the front of my sweater and coat.   I quite like it!

Knitting and Novel-Writing

So, November is here, and with it comes colder weather.  This means, it's quite nice to sit inside and knit with a warm mug of hot chocolate. 

However, I do have to be aware that National Novel Writing Month is now happening, and my spare time is, well, pretty much non-existent.  However, luckily, most of my Holiday Knitting is transit friendly, and it's also a good way to give my brain a break when I just can't think of the next line to write.

So, the Mini-Dalek is progressing quite nicely.  I had an in-person chat with my giftee earlier in the week, and I now have a proper reference point for the sizing of this -- I'm going to have to make it longer, so I'm adding a second set of bobbles after the first welt.

 I'll have to go hunting through my button-jar to see if I have 3 matching buttons for this, but if not, a trip to the fabric store is in order anyway, as I have several projects that need various notions.

The Pine Cone mittens are also coming along well, especially considering that they were a stash-dive.  Left mitten is done except for the thumb, now, and the cuff's cast on for the right mitten.

The charted pattern on the back of the hand means this is a bit less transit-friendly, but the ribbing and such still is something I can bring with me while travelling.

Finally, the Christmas Mittens are one of the fastest knits I've ever done.  They're been almost completely made on various bus and subway rides, as I'm already done the thumb gusset and half-way up the palm for the right mitten.  It really does help that they're basically plain stocking stitch.

However, with all the various mittens I've been making, I'm beginning to run out of stitch holders!  They're all being used to hold thumb gusset stitches!

In less-stressful knitting news;  in my rare moments of relaxation where I'm not trying to write frantically, (usually while working on my Mass Effect 2 re-play), I've been working on my Evening Star Cowl and my Cabled Cardigan.  Even if it's only one row a day, I'm really enjoying my work on both of them, it keeps me feeling accomplished, and it's nice to see that the second sleeve for my cardigan is almost done. 

Knit-Along, Sock-Along

Hello again, and sorry for the brief hiatus.   I do not yet have a working laptop, but a friend has been kind enough to lend me his old netbook until my laptop is fixed. The laptop technician is hopefully coming on Tuesday.

In more knitting-related news, the cowl KAL is done, and I did not finish.  I got about half-way done.

But, I am loving how it's turning out.

I did get the needles I ordered from EatSleepKnit, but I realized that I wanted the HiyaHiya Sharps.  I'd ordered the standard HiyaHiya circulars.  It's my own fault for not paying more attention.

That's ok, you can never have too many circular needles in various sizes and lengths.  At this point I've gotten used to the Aero needles for this cowl, so I'll just keep it on those, I think.


As for the Sock-Along, it's progressing pretty well.  I did my first toe-up cast on with the Elementary Socks, and it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought.

The Froot Loops Socks have just been started again after I had to frog them.  But they're coming along ok.

They are coming along and I'm quite liking the colour.  This photo turned out pretty true-to-life for the colour, which makes them one of my more vibrant pairs of socks, but hey, I can live with that. 

Project Update -- September 27th, 2013

No pictures (it's dark now, so pictures don't turn out as well), but some news.

1)  I've determined that yes, I -will- need more yarn to finish my Mariah Cabled Cardigan. It's been an interesting adventure, knitting this, because I started when I knew a lot less then I know now.

So, I've put 1 more skein of the Dream In Colour Smooshy with Cashmere on my wishlist at EatSleepKnit.  (It's not in stock there right now).    Where I originally got the yarn, back in 2012, is no longer carrying Dream in Colour yarns, in fact, I haven't found a local place that carries the Smooshy with Cashmere.  Knit-O-Matic could order a bag of the Smooshy with Cashmere, I've been told, but I don't need a bag, just one more skein.  And though yes, I could use the other skeins in luxurious socks, I don't like the cashmere content in socks, because I want my socks to be machine washable.

However, this means that my new skein, like most hand-dyed yarns, won't be an exact match.  So, my plan is to finish up the sleeve with the skein I have now, then alternate the new skein with the ends from my various old skeins, and hope that hides the worst of the dye lot variation.

2) My Cowl KAL is progressing. . . slowly.  I just sat down with Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (can I say that I love the original series far more then the JJ Abrams reboot?)  and knit through that, which got me to the second pattern repeat (the pattern repeats 6 times).   When I'm done here, I'm going to stick on the Star Trek original series episode "Space Seed" and see if I can't get more knitting done tonight before my roommate gets home from work.

3) My Christmas Entrelac Scarf is getting closer to completion.  It's become my take-along brainless knitting for the moment, because it really is.  Entrelac looks complicated, but so long as you don't knit too many stitches in a section, you're fine.  I'm going to use three balls of the Liberty Wool Light, and then I'll see how much longer I think it needs to be.  I'm also going to add some fringe to it -- I think it would look better.

It's KAL time!

So, I mentioned in a previous post that I'm doing a knit-along. 

Well, I started yesterday.

Here is my Evening Star Cowl in Malabrigo Sock.

It's kind of deformed right now, because it's jammed onto a 9-inch circular.  But it's working out ok, for the most part.  I am finding it hard to do a ssk with a YO with the Aero needles, just because they really are not pointy.  But I can work around that.  Otherwise, it's working out really well. 

The deadline is the 6th of October.  It's going to be tight, but I think I can make it -- and even if I don't, it's still a major push to actually make this pattern.

. . . but wait, there's more!

I've signed up for a Sock-Along that EatSleepKnit is running on Ravelry. It looks like it'll be a lot of fun.

There are two patterns:  One is Froot Loop (non-Ravelry link here), and the other is Elementary Watson.  They're both free patterns; so all I have to get is the yarn.   It starts October 1rst and runs until December 15th.

In order to be eligible for prizes, the yarn has to have been bought at EatSleepKnit, either previously, or as part of the sock-along now.  If you're buying specifically for the sock-along, you can let them know and they'll take 20% off of the sock yarn you're buying for the sock-along.  This post has all the details.

Anyway, I took advantage of this and bought two skeins of Tanis Fiber Arts Blue Label.  One Skein in "Peacock" and one skein in "Natural."  I also bought a bunch of Sweet Georgia Superwash Worsted (to make the free shipping and it's a power boost yarn, too).

What makes this really awesome is that this purchase brought me to the point on their Yarn Lotto that I get a free subscription to a magazine of my choice for a year!  I'm going to choose Interweave Knits, which I've heard really good things about.  I've still got to sort the details out, but that shouldn't take too long.

So, I'm going to have lots of knitting to do!  But that's not necessarily a bad thing.

My first KAL

So, I've decided to join in my first-ever knit-along.  It's a pretty open idea, with the challenge of knitting a cowl, there's no specific pattern.  Start date is September 22nd, end date of October 6th.

However, I'm not usually much of a cowl person.  If I want something around my neck, I'd rather have a scarf.  That being said, I love hoods.   Now, if it gets cold enough, yes, I want a proper hat, but hoods are great when the weather is cool-but-not-cold, or to wear under/over a hat when it gets really cold.

When I saw the Evening Star cowl, I fell in love.   I'm a Lord of the Rings fan, and so the entire e-book appealed to me.  Pretty much everything in that e-book has gone into my Ravelry queue, which is actually kind of exciting.

That, and it was a wonderful marriage of yarn and pattern -- remember that Malabrigo Sock in Solis that I won a while ago?   Well, it just seemed to completely suit the pattern.


Unfortunately, I don't have a free set of 4mm circulars, except a short 9 inch Aero circular.  I've tried swatching on that (we're allowed to swatch, we just have to start from scratch on the 22nd), and it works.  Sort of.

While, yes, I can jam 144 stitches onto the 9 inch circ, it's not pleasant to do so, and yes, it is the right size, but the Aero tips (these are quite old Aeros, they were originally my mother's knitting needles) are very round and I find I'm more pushing the yarn around then knitting properly. 

Unfortunately, apparently it's hard to find 4mm needles!  My LYS apologized profusely, but they didn't have any 4mm circulars (in any length). (It's not their fault, they're waiting on some orders).  And I won't get the opportunity to  go to another LYS until at least this Tuesday, after the start date, and there's no guarantee they'll have the needles I want.  Considering I'm not a fast knitter, I don't want to wait until Tuesday (possibly later) to properly cast on. I'm going to need every second of my knitting time to attempt to make this deadline.

So, I'm going to start on the Aero needles, and I've gone and ordered a 24 inch 4mm Hiya Hiya circular from EatSleepKnit with my newest order of yarn.  If it arrives in time, I will switch to it, if not, I have it for another project.