Wishful WIPS 2

Dear Blog,

My next pattern is a pair of color work mittens, but before I get into that, I feel like I should explain a little. My last run-in with color work knitting was with the Rose mittens. It's a really cute pattern that I loved to death, and when I started it everything was great: my gauge was on-spot, it wasn't tedious like I'd feared... but halfway through the glove my gauge changed drastically. So much so that I couldn't fit the glove on, and I've been a little skittish around color work projects ever since. But this pattern? This one would be worth it :

Flutter Butterfly mittens by Mimi Hill. These things are so perfect...so awesome... I must admit I feel a little dizzy when I look at them. And I imagine myself knitting them in so many different color combinations......

I know they'd be the perfect motivation to give color-knitting another go, I love a good challenge, and can you imagine wearing something that spiffy around town? A knitter couldn't hope for a more fashionable accessory ^__^

Dream in mailbox

Dear blog,

Guess what came in the mail for me Monday morning?

This beautiful sock yarn was shipped to me from simplysockyarn and it is SOO delicious! The color is something you have to see in person to believe, and it's so soft and squishy! I can not wait to start knitting this. It's taking all of my willpower to make myself continue knitting on the sunshine shawl instead of casting on something new!

It's Dream in Color Smooshy, the colorway is Raspberry Blaze, and OMG. What a treat. It's destined to be knit up as the peacock shawl, and Boy am I looking forward to it.

Next post will be another Wishful WIP. There are so many sock patterns I want to try out that even I don't know which one I'll blog about next ^__^

A cloud in my blue sky

Dear Blog,

In an attempt to speed up the knitting process, I've been taking the sunshine shawl to class with me. I knit on it during my ten minute breaks, and during my lunch break. Managed to finish chart D and this past week I finished the first row of chart E, only to discover that I was missing a stitch.

My row needs to end with 3 knit stitches and a YO, but I only have 2 stitches. Where is my other stitch? I've looked over the row for extra decreases, double checked that I knit 5 and not 6 in various places in the chart... but with upwards 600+stitches in one row, it really is like looking for a needle in a hay stack. Whats more, there is no guarantee that the mistake is in this row. The previous row was K1 YO around, I could have just as easily skipped a YO there. So what do I do? The perfectionist in me wants to completely tink back and start over..... but the practical side of me says I shouldn't work backwards unless I can actually find the place where the mistake is. If this were a normal project I would just increase a stitch and keep going as if nothing had happened, but lace isn't always as forgiving...... What should I do?

Wishful WIPS

Dear Blog,

Welcome to a new line of mini-posts designed to hide the fact that I don't have much actual knitting news to report. This new series 'Wishful WIPS' will feature a new pattern each week that I wish I was knitting, and why. I'm gonna start off with a few socks, mittens, and hats, before switching it up to some truly fantasy level projects like shawls, sweaters, and blankets. That way I can pretend that my knitting is cooler than it actually is.

The first pattern is new, designed by one of my favorite knitters Glenna. C :

Kaywinnit!

These socks are so cute! The perfect combination of dainty and practical, with a pretty easy stitch pattern. In my mind, I imagine knitting these up in a fun variegated yarn, possibly a yellow-pink, pink-blue, or pink/yellow/orange combination.

I think those colors match pefectly the personality of Kaylee, the character that inspired this pattern. There's nothing more fun (or geekier) than fire-fly inspired foot-ware. Let's set that on fire! ^_-

August update

Dear blog,

What's on the needles right now?

I'm still working on the sunshine shawl, and by that I mean that I haven't touched it since my last post. I love the pattern, but all I have is a PDF version, and a combination of me desperately avoiding the internet during the week, and hating the school laptop have definitely slowed the process down. My goal for this week is to find a printer.

Also, I realize I'm running out of time, especially if I'm still delusional enough to think I can finish this and two other lace projects by Christmas. Just to confirm my insanity I went ahead and ordered the yarn for shawl number two today. In my head I'll be knitting the Peacock Shawlette, in the near future.

I have managed to produce a new FO, however. Picture pending, it's the Eyelet and feather socks from the book sock yarn one-skien wonders. I'm actually starting to really love knitting socks, in fact I've already got my eye on a potential next pattern, but one thing I didn't love so much about this sock was the yarn. Patons stretch sock. ugg. It's stretchy and stringy and it feels more like knitting with thin rope then with yarn. Not at all a pleasant experience. So as far as Patons sock yarn goes, my advice is to stick to kroy. It's soft and yummy ^^;; The one good thing I can say about stretch is that there was no pooling and the two socks almost match up perfectly stripe-wise.

I'll edit this post later to include a picture, when I find the time.

Also, just for kicks, I'm knitting a Ravenclaw house scarf. I'm sort of tossing around halloween ideas for this year, and I haven't really decided how committed I am to the costume thing, so I'm knitting this up 'just in case' I don't get around to doing something cooler.