A Friendly Cowl With Socks On The Side

Another week, another FO. After six months with low finished project numbers, even I'm surprised. This project started when my buddy Alina came by our place, saw a skein prominently displayed (I was going to make a hat out of it), and told me that it reminded her of camping, forests, and the stars swirling overhead. Clearly this skein needed to be knit up for her.

She expressed interest in a large cowl. I knew I didn't have enough of the skein. (It's a mystery skein, by the way. It was given to me by a good friend. I have no idea what it is or who it is by. It had no tag.) So I bought a skein of Malabrigo Rios in the Purple Mystery color way. There is no mystery about how purple the skein is: it's nearly electric. Seed stitch insured that the colorful skein would look like dappled light once knit rather than something an angry preschooler finger painted. I knit 2/3 of the cowl in the mystery skein and 1/3 in the purple. I think it came out beautifully and Alina was surprised to receive it.

I wore this the day I gifted it to make sure I didn't leave it at home. My Mum saw me in it and wanted to know why I was wearing Alina's cowl.

Promptly after finishing the cowl, I cast on my Pucker socks. I'm using a skein of Hedgehog Fiber's Twist Sock in the Budgie color way and a skein of Baah! La Jolla in the La Perla color way. After buying all those white skeins for my Sheep May Safely Graze socks, I feel the need to use them.

The Pucker socks require quite a bit of concentration, as it turns out, so I've also cast on a pair of vanilla socks out of Canon Hand Dyes' Charles base in the We're All Mad In Here color way. I have knit with this color way before, although in a different base. Those socks suffered the fate that many of my early socks did and the color faded terribly. But since I've started re-fixing my socks and have started using a different wool wash, I have high hopes that these will stay nice and bright.

Pomme de Pin Will Be Mine. That And Socks.

Now that the Skews are all done, I've cast on for All The Things. Let the record stand that "All the things" means 2 new projects. I had wound up this skein of Canon Hand Dyes Charles in the Fall Leaves color way awhile ago. Somehow a bunch of deadlines got in the way, so the cake of yarn stared at me... until now. It is going to be a pair of vanilla socks. 

Fun fact: this was the first skein of Canon Hand Dyes that I ever bought. We won't talk about how many skeins I have now...

Then I cast on for a Pomme de Pin out of Cephalopod Yarns Bugga! in the Nebraska Conehead color way. I've been knitting and knitting on this, and feels like growth is pretty slow. Don't get me wrong, it is an addictive knit. But I've forgotten how long a sport weight all-over lace sweater can take to knit. Also, it is one of those patterns where it looks much smaller before blocking.

It is really tough to trust a swatch, but in the case of this cardi, I'm going to have to. Once it blocks, it is going to be gorgeous!

I've decided not to cast on anything else until this sweater is done because I want to wear it now! 

Knitter's Logic

Today is rainy and all my projects feel rainy too. I'm sure you've all been there: every project seems to have stalled or become difficult for one reason or another. I'm trying to be disciplined because I have a deadline for one of the designs. But I have a whole cubby of sock yarn that says, "Knit me, knit me!" And the only thing stopping me is that the needles I'd like to use for new socks are being used for this rather stubborn design. (The design is a pair of mitts which you can see in the upper left of my knitting basket. And now that I've fixed my very silly mistake that I made in the pattern, it should knit up much faster. Bonus: The mitts have a companion hat that has been finished and is just about ready to be tested.)

Anyways... as I went out to take the picture, I noticed that I'm knitting all blue projects! The mitts, a pair of Police Box Sox (I'm on the foot of the second one!), and a Watch Cap for me that I started last night. I heard the siren's call and I gave in. Also, I can't seem to find any of my other hats, so I used knitter's logic: make a new one.

What colors are you guys all knitting at the moment? Do you have a predominate color ruling your knitting life?

Revenge Cast-On

I feel like I've knit a whole bunch more than I have to show. It seems with most of my designs, I spend more time ripping than knitting. With any other knit, I don't mind adding and subtracting stitches when something doesn't come out right. But as a designer, I have to make sure the miscounts are my own fault, not a pattern issue. So after ripping out this toe several times, I decided to take revenge on it...

By casting on for two hats. (As if one wasn't enough) That will show that stupid toe who's boss.

Me. That's who.

Does anyone else out there "revenge cast-on" or "revenge start-a-new-project"? I'd love to hear about it.