Grey Days
Well, it finally came. Wintertime in Oregon! As it happens, the rainy weather has brought on a spate of projects all perfectly themed with this month's project spectrum challenges!
Project Greydom, er Spectrum
Up there we've got two FOs, three WIPs, and a snapshot of my Sunday weather in town. The hat is the Fake Isle from Magknits, in a stash grey tweed yarn and Noro Big Kureyon, knit on US 8 needles. I liked the hat, once I figured out what all was going on. This was my first real charted project, so I had a lot of ripping to do when I made a mistake. I also switched the color scheme, so the color was in the fair isle stranding and not the main color of the hat. I'm not sure if I am okay or not with it. I think I am so far. Also, halfway through, I realized I was stranding too tightly, so I had to take out about a third of the second chart and re-knit it looser to fit my gigantor head. But, I like it, sorta. The decreasing looks like a nipple to me, rather than the nicely shaped skullcap that is pictured on the website. This is an increasing problem for me, as I have realized my sock skills don't translate to hat skills. This is more apparent when you see the little mini-hat at the bottom of the picture above. Yes, that is a hat- not a sock. Argh.
Speaking of socks, I just turned the heel on the Opal handpainted socks. I'm looking forward to knitting the legs and getting them off the needles and off my back. I'm not sure if I should keep them stockinette or jazz up some lace. I kind of want another try at Jaywalkers, but I am worried I'll make the same mistake again and make them too small. I didn't do anything for Laceuary this year, though I wanted to. Hmm.
The other FO in there is Calorimetry, from Knitty. It is in a stashed alpaca yarn on size seven needles. I am not sure how I feel about it, either. I think I like it though. It is soft and made my ears warm when I wore it under a hat last night (no button to sew on yet). Quite functional. And I really like the grey color. Since I have about two or three more balls of this stuff, I think I'm going to make a hat out of it for a friend. She'll love the softness. Since it would be a kitty hat, the shaded stripes would make it look very tabby. However, I think she might have wanted a pink one... maybe I'll make another hat for me instead!
The final WIP is the Central Park Hoodie from the Knitscene fall 06 issue. It is turning out pretty well so far, as it should, since it only took me THREE times to cast on the ribbed stitches at the bottom. First time I counted wrong. Second time, I used the wrong needles. Last time's a charm. 2x2 ribbing is my least favorite kind of ribbing, especially on straights instead of circs (small hands equal big problems with larger straights!). I'm almost done with the back of the piece, and finished my first skein of yarn. As it turns out, all the handling of the yarn has only made the yarn softer! It should be really comfy when I'm done with it. The cable pattern is really easy, and it looks great so far. I tried to get a good pic of the cables, but they all came out blurry.
I find it kind of odd all my FO's this month are grey, rather than blue. Blue is my favorite color, so I have a LOT of blue yarn to use up. Perhaps next month? Also, I'm proud that the majority of this month's projects are using stash yarn- the only new yarn was some of the Cascade 220 (purchased earlier this year on sale- so kind of a stash yarn) and the Noro! I am SO loving having two months to get projects done! I'm off to watch whatever is on tv and keep knitting. It's what rainy afternoons were made for, after all.
Project Greydom, er Spectrum
Up there we've got two FOs, three WIPs, and a snapshot of my Sunday weather in town. The hat is the Fake Isle from Magknits, in a stash grey tweed yarn and Noro Big Kureyon, knit on US 8 needles. I liked the hat, once I figured out what all was going on. This was my first real charted project, so I had a lot of ripping to do when I made a mistake. I also switched the color scheme, so the color was in the fair isle stranding and not the main color of the hat. I'm not sure if I am okay or not with it. I think I am so far. Also, halfway through, I realized I was stranding too tightly, so I had to take out about a third of the second chart and re-knit it looser to fit my gigantor head. But, I like it, sorta. The decreasing looks like a nipple to me, rather than the nicely shaped skullcap that is pictured on the website. This is an increasing problem for me, as I have realized my sock skills don't translate to hat skills. This is more apparent when you see the little mini-hat at the bottom of the picture above. Yes, that is a hat- not a sock. Argh.
Speaking of socks, I just turned the heel on the Opal handpainted socks. I'm looking forward to knitting the legs and getting them off the needles and off my back. I'm not sure if I should keep them stockinette or jazz up some lace. I kind of want another try at Jaywalkers, but I am worried I'll make the same mistake again and make them too small. I didn't do anything for Laceuary this year, though I wanted to. Hmm.
The other FO in there is Calorimetry, from Knitty. It is in a stashed alpaca yarn on size seven needles. I am not sure how I feel about it, either. I think I like it though. It is soft and made my ears warm when I wore it under a hat last night (no button to sew on yet). Quite functional. And I really like the grey color. Since I have about two or three more balls of this stuff, I think I'm going to make a hat out of it for a friend. She'll love the softness. Since it would be a kitty hat, the shaded stripes would make it look very tabby. However, I think she might have wanted a pink one... maybe I'll make another hat for me instead!
The final WIP is the Central Park Hoodie from the Knitscene fall 06 issue. It is turning out pretty well so far, as it should, since it only took me THREE times to cast on the ribbed stitches at the bottom. First time I counted wrong. Second time, I used the wrong needles. Last time's a charm. 2x2 ribbing is my least favorite kind of ribbing, especially on straights instead of circs (small hands equal big problems with larger straights!). I'm almost done with the back of the piece, and finished my first skein of yarn. As it turns out, all the handling of the yarn has only made the yarn softer! It should be really comfy when I'm done with it. The cable pattern is really easy, and it looks great so far. I tried to get a good pic of the cables, but they all came out blurry.
I find it kind of odd all my FO's this month are grey, rather than blue. Blue is my favorite color, so I have a LOT of blue yarn to use up. Perhaps next month? Also, I'm proud that the majority of this month's projects are using stash yarn- the only new yarn was some of the Cascade 220 (purchased earlier this year on sale- so kind of a stash yarn) and the Noro! I am SO loving having two months to get projects done! I'm off to watch whatever is on tv and keep knitting. It's what rainy afternoons were made for, after all.
posted by shoeboots at 6:21 PM
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