Well, I sat down and decided to go and rip out the yarn that I had used to make Kyoto.
And there is all is...in all it's glory. What was once lovingly (and sometimes not so lovingly) knit up into a sleeve, back, two front panels, and obi-style sash has been reduced to it's former, unknit state.
Le sigh...je suis trés triste...mais c'est la vie!
Decided to be lazy, and not get another ball of that organic cotton. You know when you just want a project to be finished? yeah...that's how I felt.
Here are the details:
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpaca Organic Cotton (3 skeins)
Needles: Size 8 rosewood circulars by Lantern Moon (their Destiny line)
Pattern: Leaf Pattern Scarf by o-wool
My impressions:
The organic cotton is just...^__^ I really like it. It knits up soft and fluffy, and oh so nice to run against your cheek. At the same time, it's not slippery and sits well on the needles. The pattern itself isn't difficult; it didn't take long before I wasn't looking at the pattern anymore. However, I feel like the scarf is a little bit wide. I think if I were to do this pattern again, I'd remove one of the lace pattern repeats from it. But other than that, I give the pattern a thumbs up. Oh, and Lantern Moon circulars are REALLY nice. Expensive, but beautiful to work with.
So, last night I was cleaning the apartment in preparation for my parents coming over for dinner. Since my knitting corner was getting a little disorderly with all the bags of yarn, baskets with projects, etc. I figured this would be a good time to clean it out a bit better. Much to my chagrin, I discovered that the cats (maybe one of them, or even both of them) had been marking some of the baskets, especially the cloth ones. Luckily, most of my yarn was safe. I had to get rid of the baskets, which kinda hurt, and some yarn that wasn't all that great anyway, so that didn't hurt. BUT, there was one set of things that got soiled that REALLY pained me.
Do you remember that sweater I was working on a long, long time ago? The Kyoto one from Knitty? Well, I haven't finished it yet, but I did buy the yarn to do so, and was most of the way through the last sleeve. Well, the sleeve was ruined, and had to be thrown out. The extra balls of yarn that I have? I wasn't totally sure if they were ruined yet, but I think one ball of the two was soiled and will have to be thrown away. So, the sweater can't be finished now because I don't have enough yarn. That dye lot of Misson Falls is long gone.
I thought about maybe washing it, but all my past experience with cat pee is that the smell just doesn't go away, even after multiple washes. So, I think after some mourning, I will frog all the pieces that I have completed, rewind the yarn, and think about what I want to do with it. The nice thing is that I probably have enough yarn to make a cute short sleeve sweater, and since it's cotton, it'll probably be good for the summer. What do you think? I'm thinking I want something that I can knit in the round that's mostly brainless, maybe with some cute detailing here and there. Who knows. I'm still a bit in shock over what happened that I haven't really wrapped my brain around what to do next.
Suggestions welcome!
Behold the latest and most lovely addition to my knitty equipment, courtesy of Jason, possibly the most intelligent and discerning man on the planet. He noticed the looks of envy I was directing towards Lorelai's swift on Gilmore Girls one evening (Knit-a-thon in Star's Hollow!), asked a couple of careful fact-gathering questions about swift use, poked around on the internet, and voila, a very much appreciated birthday present! This is a photo of the inaugural winding, and boy is it ever glorious. No more fiddling with chairs and swinging my arms around to desperately prevent tangling! Oh, and the yarn? Koigu, one of my very favourites, purchased from Lettuce Knit over the summer. Look at all the beautiful greens! I'm thinking a lacy scarf. 
All my Christmas knitting? ALL DONE, as of tonight, except for the blocking. Ends woven in and everything. Wahoo! There are 4 scarves, 2 hats, and 1 pair of socks. Hm....I guess that doesn't really sound like such a triumphant achievement, does it? I may throw in another scarf-and-hat set, but that really depends on whether I feel like doing it or not. No pictures right now because I'm too lazy, but I'll try to get some later if I feel like doing a little photoshoot.
OK, so I knit a hat this weekend. There was some yarn marinating in my stash that I wanted to knit up, so I picked a hat pattern that looked interesting, and started knitting away. Problem is, I didn't realize that maybe the yarn + pattern wasn't the best combination until I was halfway through the hat. And then I figured I might as well finish it anyway, to see how it turned out in the end. So here it is. What do you think, acceptable, or fugly as hell? 
This is the Short Row Hat from the Winter 2005 issue of Interweave. If you click on the link to the pattern (a pdf), you'll notice that the knitter has chosen a softly striping yarn which gives the short row squares a lovely entrelac-y look. What did I choose? Crazy variegated goodness, you can't even see the stupid diamond-things. I should have saved myself the short row hassle (although now I'm pretty good at YO short rows!) and knit something in plain stockinette instead. But now I don't care enough to rip it all out. I will probably wear it anyway, even though I suspect that it should really stand out as an example of what not to knit. =) But it hasn't been all disasters over here Chez Chen, here is a lovely Irish Hiking Scarf knit in Rowan's new Tapestry yarn, a Christmas prezzie-to-be. I love the way it stripes (should've used it for the Short Row Hat!). I wasn't such a huge fan of its splittiness while knitting it, but I definitely think the end effect was worth it. 
