Well, It's Done, Anyway

After much mind changing and frogging and sighing, I finally have a finished scarf. I must've started a new pattern and then decided I didn't like it, for whatever reason, and frogged it about half a dozen times. I think this yarn would've been pretty useless if I'd frogged one more time. It was starting to get really uneven and bumpy--so the scarf looks a little wonky in places too. The scarf is nice, but I'm not in love with it. It's pretty, it was easy, but most of all--it's done. I needed a scarf, since it's finally starting to get chilly here in Michigan. (It's about time!) There was a distinct nip in the air when I stepped onto the porch this morning to get the paper. I ended up doing the Curly Purly dropped YO scarf. I cast on 23 stitches and used size 10.5 needles.

I decided to keep the mistake rib ear warmer/headband I made back when I thought I'd have a mistake rib scarf to go with it. The headband and the scarf won't match, but hey, I like the headband, so I'll just deal with it. (Plus, I'll probably wear the headband only occasionally anyway).



In other knitting news, I'm trying to learn to knit continental. I've been a "thrower" ever since I learned to knit as a small child, but it seems, according to many of the people in the message boards I frequent, that continental is faster. After trying it, I think it also seems more efficient, with less wasted motion. I'm all for that! Sounds like continental makes colorwork easier too, so if I ever want to try colorwork--which I probably will someday--this will be a nice skill to have. I tried knitting continental every so often on the Curly Purly scarf, and I'm beginning to get comfortable manipulating the needles, but I'm still trying to figure out the best way to hold the yarn to keep the tension even. I have trouble with the yarn either being too loose or with it all of a sudden not flowing off my finger at all. I'll keep trying.

Back to my socks. Last night I also cast on a Mason Dixon baby kimono just for fun.

Socks for Me!

You may remember me posting about these often quite some time ago. These are the very first socks I ever started knitting but the third pair I've finished. I put them down for a looooong time and knit a gift pair and a Sockapalooza pair in the interim. This week I got sick of looking at them sitting in my knitting basket and decided to finish them. I can't wear them until fall, but it's good to have them done anyway. Can't wait to wear them!

I think I did a pretty good job of matching up the stripes--until I got to the toe on the final sock. I ran out of yarn and had to join the little piece that I wound off searching for the right spot in the color repeat to start the second sock. So the second sock has a weird brown and blue toe:

I ended up having only five yards left! Look what a tiny ball five yards makes:

So if you have feet larger than about a women's size 8 or 8 1/2, you might want to steer clear of Magic Stripes.

Knitterly details:

Pattern: Silver's Sock Class--basic sock on four DPNs

Yarn: Lion Brand Magic Stripes, denim stripe

Needles: US size 1 DPNs
Mods: used size 1 needles instead of size 2s as called for in the tutorial (I did knit one sock on size 2s, and it turned out much to big for me.)

And since I have such a bingey personality, I couldn't resist casting on for a new sock. (It's a basic Silver's Sock Class sock in Magic Stripes again--I got two skeins at bargain basement price, so I may as well practice on it.) It feels really good to have a different project inhabiting my sock sack.

Back At It Again

I'm back to my Doodlepants now. I successfully got past the short rows, and they look pretty good. I'm nearly done with the body. I decided to try to add a gusset (why can't I ever just follow the pattern?), and I screwed that up. So I ended up frogging again, but only a handful of rows this time. I know what I did wrong, so now I just have to redo and it's on to the legs! I'm getting somewhere . . .

So here's what they look like now. (Except that the color is way off in this picture. The lighting in the living room is really bad right now. I'm actually using a really yummy Peace Fleece color called Kamchatka Seamoss. I posted a pic earlier that shows the color better, even though it doesn't do justice to all the little subtleties. At first glance it looks just green, but if you look closer, it has a wonderful blue mixed in. Anyway, I digress! LOL.) I can't wait 'til they start looking like pants!