FINISHED

Finished:
1) 19 pages about British brass band music in the first half of the 20th century

2) One keyboard fugue in the style of Bach

3) Two final exams

4) My junior year in college (terrifying, let me tell you)

5) My supercute headband!



Yarn: Mirasol "Hacho," handdyed merino. I loved it! Squishy, springy, the colors didn't even pool.
Needles: Susan Bates size 3 straights, inherited from my grandmother. Normally I'm not a fan of metal needles or straight needles, given a chance, but a) they had really nice pointy tips that were helpful, and b) you can't argue with free.
Pattern: Leftover sock yarn headband from Pepperknit. Mine is a little bigger because it's not sock yarn--it's probably a DK weight.

Overall, excellent! Fast, easy, got me through those last hours of studying. Colorful. Good stuff.



Today I celebrated the end of exams by doing a little lot of yarn shopping! I'll post pictures of the haul soon, but it was gooooood.

(almost) instant gratification

In an attempt to avoid studying for the exams which WILL creep up upon me despite my best efforts to pretend otherwise, yesterday I did the following:

1) Attempted to organize my closet, but actually just made a giant mess

2) Dug out a sock that I started last summer, turned the heel, picked up stitches from the flap, started the gusset. No pictures yet, but coming soon!

3) Ate a rather alarming amount of chocolate.

4) Despite the multitude of projects on the needles, some with deadlines, some that have been hanging around so long it's embarassing...I cast on for a new project: this lace headband. I don't know what came over me--one minute I was innocently procrastinating and reading blogs, and the next I'd grabbed the skein out of my stash and was winding as fast as I could. I love this yarn:



Mirasol Hacho, 100% handdyed merino. I picked up a single skein on my trip to Chicago in March, and it had been percolating in my stash ever since then.



Aren't the colors beautiful? I like the little flashes of blue--they prevent it from being a little too Rasta.

I modified the pattern a little--I wanted a wider headband so I added a stitch on each side. It's curling a lot, though, and I wonder if that's because it's wider. Now I think maybe I should have had a garter stitch border, but it's a little late now. I'll block the hell out of it and if that doesn't work, some kind of crocheted edging? The lace pattern actually doesn't show up particularly well in the colors, but they're so beautiful I don't mind.



Anyway, it's a perfect little project for my finals-week-addled brain!

Well, CRAP.

I'm plugging away in the middle of finals week around here--I've finished one fugue and one paper, and I have one (mostly done) paper and two exams to go. My mother sent me a care package with some snacks, so it's time for a little knitting break! I finally finished both sleeves on my Gathered Pullover--let's see how they're looking.



Yeah. CRAP.

I don't even know what I did wrong--the markers show where I did the increases, (I cut all but the first one off of the first sleeve, which is too bad because they might have been helpful in figuring out what I did). It looks like I started doing the increases at the same place, so it must have been some mistake with counting rounds in between increases...which means I can't just rip back at the cuff...CRAP. Tomorrow I'll get out the schematic and see which one of these is right, or at least approximate. Then it's time to frog it.

I'm too annoyed to deal with this now, though, so I'm just going to sulk and eat chocolate and knit Dashing.



Well, kind of. The astute (or really just vaguely cognizant) among you will notice that this mitt does not, in fact, bear much more than a passing resemblence to Cheryl Niamath's very nice design. In rather typical form, I swatched, liked the fabric, was so far off with my gauge that I would have ended up with fingerless gloves for Chewbacca, and decided to just screw it and make up my own pattern for cabled fingerless mitts. I did use the afterthought thumb from the original pattern, though! But that's about it.

In gratuitous non-knitting news, remember that tiny, precious little puppy from this post? Now he looks like this:



The one on the left, of course. The one on the right is one of the newest additions to the family, courtesty of my parents and their ceaseless quest to replace me. So far he and his sister (because why would you get one cat when you can get two? Just because you have twice as many animals as people...) are fitting in well. When I go home this summer I'll have to see how he feels about yarn.

I got nothing

But I might soon! The second sleeve from my Gathered Pullover is about 4 rows away from completion, so I'll have some progress to show then. In the meantime, in lieu of actual knitting, here are three knitting-related things:

1) Funny story #1: My freshman year (i.e. almost three years ago--I am old!) there was this guy in my dorm who was on the varsity baseball team who, get this, liked to sit in the courtyard and knit! I never saw him make anything fancier than a garter stitch scarf, but still. Anyway, the story is that once he was talking to a friend of mine who's quite an accomplished knitter, and she was showing him her lace shawl. He asked what it was made of.
Her: "Oh, I think it's mohair."
Him: "Mohair, huh? You know, I've always wondered...if this is mohair...what exactly is a 'mo'?"

2) Funny story #2: At dinner the other day, I was talking to two of my friends, one of whom I'll be living with this summer. My friend asked if I can cook.
Me: "Of course I can cook! ...well...I can follow recipes..."
My other friend, rather skeptically: "Uh-huh. Do you follow recipes the same way you follow knitting patterns?"

Yeah.

3) Yarn!



Cherry Tree Hill silk/merino, colorway "Gypsy Rose." Hands down the most expensive single skein I have ever purchased. I am a little bit afraid to use it, for fear of messing it up. It might be a Lace Ribbon Scarf eventually, but now it is just for petting.

squoosh

This week is eating my soul. 15-page paper + 10-page paper + 5-page paper + analysis project = DEATH.

Happily, I have something to soothe me:


Knitpicks Cadena, 70% wool, 30% superfine alpaca. Reminds me quite a bit of this but not so expensive.

I'm not even knitting with it. I just keep it by my desk and, when I can feel my brain melting like a plastic plate on a hot stove (ask me how I know), I squoosh it. Eventually it is destined for these, but right now it's just for squooshing.


What I want to be knitting, and what I am supposed to be analyzing.

Squoosh. Squoosh. Squoosh.

Mystery knitter found!

Remember the woman from the subway, with the beautiful Venezia? A little bit of googling later, hi Glenna! It was great to meet you.

I've actually been writing/researching instead of goofing off these last few days, so no new knitting to show; my parents have flown back home, taking the baby hat with them to deliver. I can't wait to start on the actual baby clothes; I'm thinking of this.

And because no one likes a pictureless post, you think you can't fit a ballwinder and swift into a dorm room?



Think again.

Baby's First Colorwork

A few weeks ago, when I found out that one of my good friends from high school is pregnant, I texted another friend to tell her the news. Her response: "u better start knitting!"

Indeed.

I have plans for actual baby clothes, to give her at her shower this summer, but I was so taken by the idea of baby knitting that when I saw this pattern in the store, the pattern and yarn were in my bag and then on my needles before I knew what was happening. Call it a "congratulations on getting knocked up pregnant" gift! It was finished before I knew it, too; shockingly enough, knitting for small people takes less time than knitting for big people.



Pattern: Ann Norling's "Fruit Cap," followed pretty much exactly (shocking, I know). The only mod I made was to reduce the little stem thing from 9 stitches to 6, so I could make i-cord instead of knitting 9 stitches in the round on four needles (which is a big fat P.I.T.A., let me tell you).
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Rialto, 100% superwash merino. I would DEFINITELY use this again, especially for baby projects--it's soft and squooshy and not at all itchy. The green was actually a much paler celery color to begin with, but I thought it was too pale, so a little trip to Shaw's for some vinegar and green food coloring solved that problem.

And doesn't it look nice?



I was debating whether or not to dye it, but I'm so glad I did--it's ever so slightly marbled now, and it gives the yarn a beautiful depth.

I'm still a colorwork wimp, so I knit this by picking up and dropping each color. I know, I know, I should learn to knit Continental style and then be able to hold one color in each hand...but again, I'm a wuss.

I also met some knitters in the wild yesterday! I was in NYC for the day, and I saw two women sitting across from me, knitting socks! They were both wearing "Eat. Drink. Knit." pins, and after working up the courage to talk to them, I found out they were in New York for the Yarn Harlot book release. Suprisingly, they did not appear to think I was a Total Psycho (my parents, visiting for the weekend and wondering if I make a habit of talking to strangers on public transportation, may have). I have of course forgotten their names, but one was wearing Venezia and it was jaw-droppingly gorgeous.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go block that hat and then work on my term paper. I am NOT going to cast on for matching booties. Nope. Not me.