Spring Break Knit-a-thon: Photo Update

Spring Break Knit-a-thon

A spring break knitventory. Here are some of the WIP I hope to finish this week:

First, I'm nearly finished with Branching Out because, well, I underestimated the amount of yarn I'd need to make a nice long scarf. So instead I'll have a slightly shorter one. Oh well.

Next, this fingerless mitten (from One-Skein Wonders) needs a mate.

This pattern knits up really fast (the above mit took me less than a day), so no excuses for not finishing. (Yarn is Paton's denim, frogged from an earlier project that I lost interest in, knit on size 8 dpns.)

Also from O-S W is this ripple scarf (same yarn as above, knit on size 8 needles):

(Pretend you don't see all of the sock yarn hiding there under the scarf.) I seriously love this pattern. It's fast, fun, and the ridges are way cool. I might try it again, maybe as a gift, with lighter, springier yarn (like Karabella Aurora 8, maybe?). I'm fond of this Paton's yarn--plus it's way affordable--but it's just a little heavy, and I think the ripples would be ripplier (to use a technical term) with something just a bit lighter.

And last but not least, I'd like to finish some of the socks currently IP. Just a little more than the toe to go on Broadripple:

And most of the foot left on the second blue stripey sock.

Unfortunately progress has been slow--remember my earlier short row heel success? Well, after THREE attempts, I still ended up with this:

Sorry for the blurry picture--unfortunately, it's really not too blurry for you to miss that GIANT HOLE at the top of the gusset. Hey, I learned to do these heels to AVOID holes. Clearly, I'm doing something wrong. Yeesh. But I found what I thought was a dropped stitch,and picked it up. The GIANT HOLE is now smaller, but obviously the dropped stitch wasn't the only mistake. But I have no idea what else it could be. Both socks have smallish holes in the same place--and it's worse when I pick up the wraps from the knit side. And I think it's happening around the very last pick-up.

New Year's Visit with Old Friends

Last week I packed up a few knitting projects and headed to Pittsburgh (PA) for a visit with family and old friends, including GK who says she checks my blog "every day." (Hi Geet!) Before I left, I started a couple projects to take with me. Below is the beginning of Branching Out (from Knitty) for which I'm using a really lovely yarn that I found at Fearless Fibers. After a few false starts (when the instructions say "cast on loosely," they're not kidding!), I got the hang of the pattern, which I think looks great in this yarn. This is my first attempt at something lacey, and although it's turning out okay (all those bumps will go away after blocking, right?!), I decided it was just too complicated for travel-knitting. SO--

I started another scarf with some Paton's yarn I'd bought a month ago because I liked the combination of blues (the color is denim marl), and I thought the marled effect would work well for a nice long scarf.
I wanted a simple pattern with long lines to show off the flecks of light blue. I consulted Barbara Walker's Treasury of Knitting Patterns and decided to try the Italian chain rib, which so far is giving me the effect I wanted--which isn't evident from the tiny picture above. I'll post a better picture later.

On Thursday, GK and I spent a cosy afternoon at Knit One, a wonderful shop in Squirrel Hill where we did some knitting and shopping. Even though I really didn't have any more room in my suitcase, I caved and bought some sock yarn (hey, it was on sale!) as well as some pretty Louisa Harding yarn (Kimono Angora and Kimono Ribbon) to make the (very girly) gloves pictured below (apologies for the bad photo--it's dark and rainy here, and I had to use the flash which is reflecting off the cover and makes it look like the sun is rising over the model's head).
After leaving Knit One, we headed back to GK's for Chinese take-out and a great visit catching up with MK, JG, and Miranda (who, although she looks a lot like my Katie, is much much calmer).