Commission done!

So, I finished the hooded scarf for my co-worker. However, no photos yet. Also, I wanted her to see it before I called if 'finished-finished'. I was a bit stupid when I was making it. The pattern suggested using size 11 needles, and for some reason, I thought I didn't have any. Even though they were pretty much staring me in the face. So I knit everything quite loosely on 10.5 needles. Hopefully it'll fit. If not, I'll just make another one - the project only took just over 1 skein, and she bought 3.

Experimental hat

Guess what I did this afternoon (before meeting up for dinner)? I knit a hat! I had two skeins of Queensland Uruguay DK that I bought on super-sale at Webs, and I'd always wanted to try the fair isle part of the Cheesylove pattern (without actually knitting the whole sweater of course!), so I thought I'd use the opportunity to put the two together.

I've knit enough plain stockinette hats now that the recipe is pretty much automatic, so I knit a small gauge swatch, cast on 96 stitches, knit some K2P2 ribbing, switched to stockinette, knit the fair isle pattern (bordered by some stripes), and decreased for the crown.



After my experience with the Main Street Fair Isle, I figured that I should probably knit the colourwork fairly loosely as I expected the hat to have to stretch a decent amount (my head is 21-22 inches around, the hat was knit to be 18-19 inches around unstretched) and I didn't want to risk the fair isle part being too small. So I knit VERY LOOSELY. The floats were VERY LONG. Too long, in fact. Why is it so hard to get the tension just right? The inside of my hat now consists of a lot of loopy bits. And there are a lot of loose stitches on the outside. Not the most attractive.

Another thing was that I decided that the ribbing was too long after having completed the entire hat, so I had to cut the yarn and unravel all of the ribbing so I could do it over again (from top down). Not a horrid thing, but a bit inconvenient.



Will I wear this hat? Who knows? It will probably be relatively warm due to the brim and the fair isle floats, but I may not be brave enough to wear this in public with all of its imperfections. Maybe a good blocking would fix it some?

Sophie doesn't really have an opinion, she pretty much hates hats in general.

Very Predictable

Ever since I learned how to knit, I've knit my dad winter accessories for Christmas. Usually a scarf, sometimes with an accompanying hat. And this year is no different.



This is a modified Irish Hiking Scarf (2 cables instead of 3), knit out of some pretty brown Jaeger Extra Fine Merino Chunky, which has been sadly discontinued. I was originally planning to knit both a scarf and a hat, but I miscalculated when I bought the yarn (and since it's discontinued, it's not like I could easily find more) so he's just getting a slightly longer scarf. Ah well.

Maybe next year I can come up with something different. One can only have so many brown/gray/black scarves, right? =)

Socks for Greg

DSC01375
Originally uploaded by hweishien

So, I've started the socks for Greg, and while they're progressing, I'm finding that I'm getting sick of knitting socks now. I mean, this would be my third consecutive pair! I'm thinking of telling my bro "Sorry, but I just wasn't able to finish your socks in time." I think I just need something different for now. I'm really not feeling motivated to finish these. And besides, I think they might be a little too big for his foot. I'll have him try them on when I see him. I might actually have to frog the whole thing anyway.

Snow day!

Today was spent indoors since the weather outside made it very undesirable to venture outside. Long periods of time spent indoors = knitting, and that allowed me to finish the socks for my mom, and start the ones for my brother.


I didn't take a photo of the ones for my brother yet. They aren't at a very interesting stage yet :D

Musings on Ravelry

So I've had a Ravelry account for just about 2 months now....and I've done virtually nothing with it. Initially it would drive me crazy when someone would refer to something on Ravelry on their blogs and I would be unable to see just what they were talking about. It seemed like a cool idea to be able to type in a pattern name and see pages and pages of photos without having to troll through the results of a Google search. And then there was that whole aura of "hey, here's this cool club that you're not a part of yet!" So I put myself on the waiting list, and obsessively checked my spot in line every few days or so. I passed the time by uploading a bunch of old FO photos to Flickr in anticipation of massive project-updating activity.

And then my invite lands in my inbox during a relatively hectic time, and it just sits there for several days. I make several halfhearted efforts to come up with a username that wasn't stupid or already taken (adrienneknits was the final decision, which is terribly unoriginal but meh, whatever). I poke around in my "notebook" and make a stab at adding some projects. I add some books (I also have trouble remembering which books I have, as they are all in boxes at present). I wait for the crazy obsessive feeling that so many other knitters have experienced to take over me. But....it seems like I just don't care that much. The thought of spending even MORE time updating this additional knitting-related database just makes me feel tired.

I know some people seem to have this inexhaustible energy for blogging, for reading and commenting on other people's blogs, for participating in this whole crazy knitting "community" that exists out in cyberspace, but it seems like I only have so much patience for it. I mean, I've gone months without knitting, and months without touching this blog. Knitting is fun, but I don't necessarily want to be doing it 24/7. Looking at and reading about everyone else's knitting is also enjoyable, but sometimes I'm just not that interested.

Anyway. I'm happy with this little blog that we've got going here (and which we've maintained more or less for a pretty long time!), and it's ok that we don't really advertise it or have a bevy of adoring readers. Sometimes I wish it were different, but most of the time I'm content with just doing what pleases us and not feeling pressure to be constantly producing beautiful knits to serve as blog fodder. And I guess it's also ok that my Ravelry account just sits there most of the time, I suppose it will come in handy someday, and maybe eventually I'll even feel like doing something with it. =)

ALL for me!

I guess it's my turn to show off my purchases, huh? Unlike Karen, I was not nearly so generous with my shopping. Everything I bought was for ME. Me me me. =)

Socks That Rock Lightweight in Count Cluckula:



Dream in Color Tulip Cardigan Kit. I love this thing. I didn't buy it with a particular baby in mind, and I will probably never ever give this away. I will knit it up and it will sit in storage forever, and I will look at it and admire it and pet it periodically. Unless for some reason I end up with a baby girl, then she will be dressed up in it and photographed extensively.



C'est tout. I was pretty restrained and only bought what I was initially planning to. Progress!