Merry Christmas!

So after a (surprisingly) fun time with my family, I have a couple of photos to share.

So, you remember that illusion scarf I was working on for my uncle? Well, the illusion pattern was too difficult to keep straight, so I ripped it and started making it just a normal striped scarf with gradually widening stripes. Then it was 9 PM yesterday and I had like 12 hours to finish and two feet to go and I was about ready to run away to Canada to avoid the Christmas celebration. Then my boyfriend, who is a freaking genius, suggested just sewing the ends together and making a cowl, which worked FANTASTICALLY. And then it turned out to be an even better idea because my uncle works with heavy machinery and it is very dangerous for him to have scarf ends dangling out in front of him. So YAY. He opened it, and then refused to take it off all night. Here he is, graciously modeling it for me:

Also, my Aunt Jenny (who actually happens to be married to the uncle you see above, Chris) gave me a bunch of beautiful handspun yarn that her friend made. It's her entire year's worth of spinning. It's got wool, bamboo alpaca and even a little silk! I've never used handspun before and I am unbelievably excited to use it. I mean look at it:

The top layer . . .

. . . And the bottom layer

I still haven't finished my friend's present, but his is on much less of a time table. I'm going to work on his next, once I've taken a break from stressful knitting and worked on something easy like my shawl for a day or two.

Photo Dump

Well, I just uploaded several photos to Ravelry, so I figure it's only fair that I upload them here, too.

 This is some yarn that I picked up the other day. Hacho is on sale. This is a dangerous thing. This will likely become a pretty cowl.

 After fiddling with my camera settings for the better part of 30 minutes, I was finally able to get the focus right for this photo. I have dubbed this yarn 'Hard Candy Hacho,' and I'm going to make something for my sister out of it, but she doesn't know what yet.

 Shortly after I started the thumb gusset on my Horde mittens. I'm going to duplicate stitch the insignia in later, I've decided. I'll likely finish the first mitt today.

 The beginnings of my uncle's illusion scarf for Christmas. You can't really see the illusion yet, but that's because the scarf is actually backwards in this photo. Whoops.

 My scrapghan! It's growing! It's quite heavy now.

 This is the sock yarn that I saw and kept coming back to. I am very excited to start knitting my first socks with it!

 The first several rows of my Traveling Woman shawl, out of the yarn that my Maja was being made with. I like it so far.

This pile of green and black (with a little brown) is my Yoshi Blanket. Part of it. Or it will be, at least, once I sew it all together. Man, won't that be a fun day?

So yeah. That's what I've been up to! :D

P.S. WOW! The photos worked correctly this time! I have no idea why, but they did! Yay!

DPNS

THEY HAVE BEEN LOCATED.

THAT IS ALL.

< /pointless entry >

My First Cowl!

I meant to post this yesterday, whoops. But I finished my Dew Drop Cowl! I'm pretty happy with it, as far as first cowls go.

  I mistrusted the pattern, initially, when they said that gauge did not matter. The pattern said to cast on 200 stitches, but considering that 200 stitches would make it as wide as the blanket I'm currently knitting, I went with 100, like many people suggested. The cowl is still big enough to wrap around my neck twice. I would CO 50 if I did this pattern again, with the same weight yarn and the same needle size. I'd have to make it on dpns, though, if that were the case.

I like making cowls, I decided, but from now on, I'm going to go with ones that list a gauge, cause I still don't have what I want from this cowl: a tighter fitting garment that will keep my neck warm in the winter without a lot of hassle.

Eventful Day

I went to knitting today! It was awesome! Yay!

While there, several things happened. The first was that Emily gave me this FANTASTIC pair of felted slippers she made for me. They are super warm and fit perfectly, and I so far love patting about the house in them.
The second was that I learned that Hacho is on sale at this particular LYS. This was a bad thing for me to learn. :< I bought two skeins of it, and at least one will be for Christmas knitting. I think I'm going to use one of them on Ellie, and another one might just be for me...
Third is that I found the most beautiful yarn and I loved it. It was so soft and was a beautiful mix of purple and reddish pink. I had to keep getting up out of my seat to go look at it and pet it some more. So, I ended up buying it of course. :/ I'm bad at this game. This yarn, though, will become my first socks. Once I find my dpns. ...Crap.

Also at knitting (I got tired of counting, apparently,) I finished my headband! The crochet one I have been working on but didn't mention cause it didn't seem important! Yeah, that one! I wore it underneath my real had because today was/is our coldest day so far. :(

(So, I can't seem to get this new picture thing to work for me. Ugh.)




Also today, I got my set of 16" circs in the mail! It's got one each of sizes 0 - 15, without any exclusions, I believe. This means that I can knit hats now! This also means that I no longer have any excuses for not making things like this dew drop cowl, or good luck cowl, or the ridged lace cowl, or even things knit flat like the branching out scarf. {All Ravely links.} I've also got one other cowl that it not, to my knowledge, on Ravelry. I'll probably use some of my new Hacho for that, come to think of it...
I will also be using these circs for some already planned Christmas presents for some people who will adore their presents. (Yes, I am teasing you. You know who you are.)

Shortly after I got all these circs in the mail, I organised them all into my hanging organizer jobber (this thing.) Since only the needles themselves (as opposed to the cords) stick out beyond the case, it now looks like some horrifying porcupine death organizer. Just thought I'd share that, cause I think it's really funny.

The end.

Needles

So, instead of spamming my Twitter feed like I usually do, I'm going to post a blog about it. Yay productivity! (No, never mind the pile of homework in the corner. It's not important. Promise.)

First of all, I am at somewhat of a loss. I cannot find my dpns anywhere! It's freaking me out! I have a growing collection, stored in two tins (one for odds, one for evens), but I cannot find either tin. I was just finally getting up the courage to try a sock again, and one of my intended Christmas presents requires dpns, for part of it at least.
I did get a similar tin for my crochet hooks, which I can, of course, find. Maybe my dpns ran away cause they're jealous of my hooks? I would feel so bad. ;^;

But on to the real issue.

I am very seriously considering getting a set of knitting needles. Of course, most people think of the addi Clicks when they think of sets. And those look really nice. It's difficult to convince myself to not just cave and bu them. I know that I currently have the dollars to get them, but I don't have income right now. The other issue with this set is that it doesn't come with a 16" cable, for hats.
The one I am leaning towards right now, though, are the metal Options set from KnitPicks. I've never ordered from KnitPicks before, but I have heard nothing but good things about them.
There also the Denise needles, which don't sound terrible. They do have the shorter cords that I want, but they have fewer needle sizes total. They're also plastic, though, which I'm not sure I'd like.

I partly want to get the needles because I'm finally past that point where you only use two sizes of needle because you only know how to knit with DK yarn or whatever.
Also, I have so much yarn. I have projects lined up for some (ok, much) of it, but I don't have the needles I require to work on them.

In regards to other things I've been working on, though . . .

I've done a couple of rows on my uncle's scarf. It's still fun to work on because it changes almost every row, so it's (so far) not an endurance project. ..Yet.
I've been working on that scarf for John I've been working on for . . . a year now? Hmm. I'm a little more than half done now, I think. It is more than half my armspan, so that's nifty. I need to get my yarn wound on Saturday, since I'm coming to the end of the cakes I'm currently knitting from.

I'm thinking about other Christmas knitting, trying to figure out what to do for people. I did figure out what I'm making for my friend Mike, though I can't post it here until I've finished it and given it to him because I'm fairly sure he reads these posts. ( :P )
I'm figuring I'll just make a halfdome for my brother, if anything. I'm gonna try to get that vikings hat for my older sister, and I'm trying to think of something suitably awesome for Ellie. I also feel like I should make something for Kari, but I don't know what. I have an idea about a present for Laura, too, cause heaven knows she deserves something awesome with what she's been going through recently.

I'll figure it out. It's just nice to write it all down to figure it out, though.

So

Ok, so I ended up ripping my Maja shawl. I intend to make a different shawl out of it, but I need to buy the needles first. This is my first real frog. .___.

But, on to better things!

I started working on my uncles scarf yesterday:



I've only got the first few rows done, but I'm liking it so far. Once it's written, illusion things seem to be.. not that bad.

Also, on the crochet front, I'm working on these cuff thingies that I talked about before. But, they were really long and loose and the bell part of it was really huge and blocked my hand, so I'm reworking it so I can actually use my hands when I'm wearing them.

Tschüs.