The Honeymoon

While there have been no wedding bells ringing for me since Monday's post, I have had a honeymoon, of a sort. You know the exhilaration, the rush, the sheer joy of a new project? Well, after finishing Lace & Tuck on Monday night I awoke on Tuesday to begin casting on for my hooded jacket. Since I only had the Aurora 8 (MC) and not Gossamer (CC) and since the pattern called for 2 rows of CC to start, I reviewed Knitty and did a provisional cast on. I checked and rechecked my cast on stitches and with joy and anticipation began the project. I finished casting on the 148 stitches on my bus ride into the office, and wasn't able to begin knitting until work was over. I established my pattern and was exuberantly knitting along (btw, Karabella Aurora 8 is lovely to work with) when after 13 rows the next instruction said something like with CC continue pattern for 2 rows. Shit! Foiled, honeymoon over in less than 24 hours! I would have to order my Gossamer now rather than later, Circles didn't have a colorway of Gossamer in that I liked when last I was there, so Kpixie to the rescue! With any luck I will have my Gossamer tomorrow and the honeymoon can begin anew. Until then, on the right is where I am stuck.

In the meantime, what does one do when one reaches a knitting impasse? I chose to pick up a UFO that was, and may still be, at grave risk of being abandoned. I picked up my VK shawl. I don't have a finished picture to show today, but there are 2 colors and it was from the Fall VK, I think (the issue with all the shawls) It is being knit from knitpicks Alpaca Cloud, which I am enjoying working with. Why is it at risk of being abandoned then? Well, for starters, I am worried that it won't block wide enough and will end up just being a wide scarf rather than a stole. Next, I don't really see an obvious stitch pattern, I am following the pattern correctly, but there is no clear thing popping out at me. Desperate times call for desperate measures though.

desperation also leads to more projects being cast on. In addition to working on my VK shawl (stole really), I decided to make a MaryElla from Knitty. I saw Jessimuhla's MaryElla and loved the idea of it. I have a bunch of beads from about 5 years ago when I became infatuated with beading. The infatuation has ended, but it left with with more seed beads than I know what to do with. Because I was overly anxious to start MaryElla I decided that I could use the left over lace weight merino from my Tea Shawl instead of DMC Perle Cotton. I loaded about 1,400 bead (guessing here) onto the merino, which broke once. I started knitting with the 0000 dpns that BitterKnitter picked up for me, and had to move the beads down the yarn again. The Merino broke yet again. Did this stop me? No, of course not, that would be sensible. I tried to move the beads onto the other side of the break so I could just continue. The fricken yarn kept breaking. Obviously there is a reason the pattern called for cotton. Finally, I got off my but and found the left over cotton from Mom's table runner and tried to move the beads from the merino onto the cotton. Not an easy job. I gave up and used the beads that were still on their original strings, but I am one string short. I just won't think of this now. This morning I started with the cotton and was even able to get to the bead adding part. Because I didn't bother buying anything, other than the needles, I am not sure that I will like the finished product, but I am enjoying the process, so I can always do a second one later.

Final thoughts for the post: 1. If you are a secret pal reading this, I am not your target. Knitzalot is and she post yesterday, since there are two of us on this blog be careful not to get us confused, while we agree on some knitting things we disagree on many others, our styles can be quite different. 2. I put up a link to my FO gallery for this year. If you want to see it, just go to the big green writing and that will be your link.

That's all the news that's fit to print.