ACK!

The ACK! would be beacuase of the thesis flail I'm currently experiencing. Honours thesis and grad school applications have taken over my life, most of my knitting is now relief knitting. I should start my second sock, but right now all my brain wants to do is mindless ribbing.

I did, however, finish one Monkey, Sunday night while I was working. Damn, this thing is pretty. I love the green-gold-brown gradients going on, and the pattern is just subtle enough that they aren't boring but aren't overly elaborate. I went up two needle sizes from a 2.5 to a 3 to make sure they actually fit. As it is, the one sock is a little snug around the heel of my massive manfeet. I modified the toe a little to make it rounder, and I tried a grafting method that didn't give me such a square bind-off. Enough babbling, pictures!





Now I'm trying to decide if I want to colourmatch the stripes, or just start knitting and end up with two different and equally funky socks.

I think I may go for the different socks. For my first Noro, I want to get all the colour I can out of them. Have I mentioned how utterly in love with this yarn I am? I'm waiting for a ball of it from one of my fellow Selfish Knitters. Keep obsessively checking my mailbox, but no sign of it yet.

Speaking of mail, I paid $1.30 in postage today to mail Natalia's finished mittens to her. To match the calorimetry I made her for her birthday, I knit a pair of simple cabled mittens. I used the Basic Cabled Mittens pattern, modified with an afterthought thumb instead of a thumb gusset. These things are tiny. I can barely get them on, which is perfect for her. I asked her to send me the measurements of her hand, because I knew it was so much smaller than mine. The cable turned out nice and neatly, but I misread the pattern instructions and did two or three fewer decrease rounds than I was supposed to. They didn't turn out too badly, except for one being a centimetre shorter than the other one. Shhh, don't tell her. She won't notice.




Check out this wicked pooling on the back. Using the same yarn on the calorimetry pattern produced a mottled affect, but I like the diagonal tiger stripes. Especially that thick band of gold and red horizonal stripes.



Ta da! Finally done. I hate cables in the round.

So, of course, I almost immediately cast on the Cozy Cable Mitts, for my girl, on her request. Taking a break from everything more complex with Hot Head from Stitch'n'Bitch. Not even trying the colour band pattern, using a striped yarn anyway. Berocco Foliage, in deep turquoise, cranberry, purple, and black. Looks and feels great so far.

Also, is a fast knit on big needles with chunky yarn and I only have to make one of them. That in itself is more than a relief.

Still ignoring the siren call of yarn shopping. Still missing my Bitch'n'Stitch group.

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