Argyle Colorwork(?) Scarf

To my anonymous commenter from the last entry (Megi? Awk?) - I did consider that, but I've never double knit anything before. I did get an awesome idea for a double knit polka dot scarf today. Because I need to make myself completely insane.

Destashing.

Went through one of the four balls of Cascade 220 I bought at The Knitting Experience 2 weeks ago - hooray for making progress. It'd be awesome if I could get at least 2 more used up before I go to Webs. I knew I didn't need to buy 5 projects' worth of stuff at TKE, knowing I'd be going to Webs, but I couldn't help it. Plus, I was there for an hour, I felt kind of an obligation to buy like whoa.

I'm using Lagoon in the 220 to make a Corona. It's free! I'm not having a hard time with so far. I was bummed when I realized that it's bottom-up instead of top-down, but apparently it's still seamless. Thank god, because sewing sleeves just leads to me ruining things. It's been a very pleasant knit.

I'm trying to think of a good pattern for my two long train rides coming up. I have 5 hours to figure out a way to kill. I think I might start some socks on Thursday night, to make sure my needles are right and I like the pattern, rather than try to figure it out on the train. I also want to have something to do at the LSG meetup, and I refuse to be making garter stitch blanket squares.

My third pattern is up, too. The Bump Bump A Dump Cowl. My friend Patience is already making it. I'm hoping it catches on like my scarf did. I'm thinking about a colorwork version of the scarf, although the back would look horrible. Hmm. Maybe that'll be my next design, maybe not. I like writing patterns up, though. I'm definitely going to be putting more out there.

I actually did something.

I had an old blog on the e-mail account I actually use, and then this blog was on the one I don't. I was constantly logging in and out. I managed to do some sort of internet voodoo and merge them all into one. Forgive the horrific nerdiness/un-LSGness of my early posts. But there's some decent project photos in there that I figured I might as well preserve.

Put up my third design today which I was going to link but now I'm pretty much drunk with tiredness. And I've had this post open for over an hour. Oh well. Goodnight.

1x1 ribbing: why not just kill myself?

I worked on my Corona at work today. Too bad, without knowing it, I twisted the join and made something useless. I only got through 3/4s of an inch before I caught it, but oh God it stings. Especially having had to frog a whole cowl 2 days ago because of EPIC gauge fail. At Megi's insistence, the forthcoming pattern for the Bump Bump A Dump cowl will feature helpful advice on how to make a big mess of crap. It'll be very LSG.

5 inches of this crap. I was going to devote tomorrow to explosive amounts of knitting, but I discovered 3 hideous bananas I bought a week ago. Oops. But, bananas are the one food that develop a new use when rotten: banana bread! And my recipe kicks ass. I might sneak in a few chocolate chips this time, too. And smushing the bananas is so damned satisfying.

I'm going to have to work on my crochet for serious now - TheYarnBearer sent me Creepy Cute Crochet through LSG RAK! I definitely need an E hook. Maybe I already have one. I have a partial set of plastic hooks. But I hate them. I have one metal one whose heft I adore. But there's no nearby crochet hook source now that Wal-Mart got rid of the craft section. Hmm. I should go somewhere. Somewhere that has supplies.

LIKE WEBS.

Less than a week!!!!

Knitting goals for the week

• Finish my Circle Socks
• Begin a second project using the yarn I bought last Saturday at TKE - possibly using pink and brown baby alpaca and showing off my fair isle skillz
• If I recieve some unfinished socks because I successfully assassinated someone in Battle of the Soxes II, KNIT THE HELL OUT OF THEM.

I actually learned fair freaking isle. Ok, there was nothing hard about it and I'm a big whiny poop. I even took the optional step of continuing the pattern on the foot because I liked it and watned to practice. I apologize that I didn't have nicer yarn to use but the switch to worsted was kind of a last minute "FUCK IT I'M NOT LEARNING FAIR ISLE ON FINGERING" and I can't justify a new yarn purchase right now, so I had to make do with one nice leftover and one not quite as nice gift. At least it made a pretty sweet color combo.

I feel like a god.

Can't post. Must knit.

In a sock battle. No time to talk. Must destroy.

Did first fair isle. Too focused to celebrate.

Will blog Monday night, unless exhausted from 13 hours of work.

Pinks and purples

My ballband bag only took one cycle to get felted. I left it in front of the heater all day to dry, and I love how it came out. Kureyon is such an awesome yarn - even if it does feel kind of crappy, I still think it's made of pixie hairs and fairy dust. Although I did somehow manage to find the one colorway that doesn't have color transitions; it's pretty much just pink. See:

I didn't know that Cascade was such a great felting yarn. It's worlds better than the Dale I used for my first felted bag, which took three cycles and I'm still not in love with it. This bag, though, I love the little bricks of color. This was my first time using the ubiquitous ball band pattern. I totally see why it's like crack to washcloth people.

After I finished that, I cast on for some Circle Socks. And oh, look at that. Ball band pattern.

It's probably going to be bordering on obsession soon. Like that time I discovered entrelac and made 2 scarves and a Quant in rapid-fire succession.

I'm on the second sock now. I'm hoping to have them done by Saturday, because I joined a sock wars kind of thing. I'm so very afraid. I'm supposed to have certain yarn for it, but I don't, and no way to get more, so I'm hoping I can stash dive. There's a prize for wackiest socks, so I don't see why I should be limited to just one self-striping yarn. Perhaps I could do one per sock? And if you're my target, and you're reading this, watch out :) I'm springing for super-fast shipping on this one.

Here's the full sock:

Holy shit, I finally remembered how to log in.

That only took 2 or 3 months.

For some reason I was itching to start knitblogging again (we'll see how that goes in a week) and was all set to come up with a new blog name, but I finally remembered what e-mail account I had setup this one with. Thank god.

I donned my twatweasel shirt in celebration of LSG's anniversary today. It's one of those things that I need to find a way to explain to others - by which I mean "come up with a completely different explanation." Such as when my students asked about my pet frog, and his name. My frog's name is Murderface, because I'm amazing. He had red and black rocks, so I thought he was pretty goth, and I love Metalocalypse. This doesn't really work when working with mentally challenged 6th graders (did I mention one of them loves Gordon Ramsey? I'll have enough to contend with already, tyvm), so I pretended his name was Chub. Chub was my previous frog, named after the Chub Toad card in Magic: The Gathering, back when I was dating a loser who was obsessed with the game (and I was obsessed with being a good little woman).

I felted a bag today, and it only took one cycle, instead of the three my previous attempt took. My pillowcase is a very interesting color, but it was an extra one, which I'm now counting as a felting supply. I'll try to put up a pic later. I keep staring at it in all of it's shrunken glory. It's like magic.

Playing around with making a layout now.