Hanami Cast On

Cast on for the Hanami tonight. I skipped the beaded cast on because I'm lazy and didn't want to wait on buying beads. I've got my first inch knit and so far it's been relatively painless. I think this pattern won't be so terrible to knit. It's relatively simple, mostly just yos and decreases. No knitting acrobatics to speak of so far. The Dream in Color Natural yarn is really soft and will be lovely to wear but it's bleeding on my hands as I knit so I'm a little concerned about that seein' as how I'm going to be wearing it with a white dress and all.

In other news, I finished up my first breeze sock on Friday (cast on for it on Sunday) so I knocked it out in less than a week. I'm about 2/3 of the way through the second one and hope to finish it up maybe this weekend. I'll take it with me to Connecticut to have as my mindless knitting for when I don't want to focus on Hanami.

Well enough alone

I just can't leave well enough alone. I kept browsing through Ravelry patterns for wedding shawls and found one that I had fallen in love with before but forgot about. The Hanami is beautiful and delicate and I think it's the one! Naturally I didn't order enough yarn for that pattern so back off to the Loopy Ewe I went to get yarn for Hanami. It took awhile for me to pick out a yarn. I browsed Loopy and Knit Picks and kept waffling between getting purple, a neutral or a wacky color. That stole is so pretty in any color it made it difficult to decide. In the end I decided on Dream In Color It's Natural Purple Rain. It better be worth the price. Now I have to wait even longer to get my yarn to start my shawl. I hope I can actually knit this thing in 4 months. It looks kinda big.

Wedding Inspiration

I've been contemplating the idea of knitting a shrug for myself for my wedding. Just a little something to wear after all the formal stuff was done to keep my arms warm once the sun goes down. I really liked the Dream in Color shrug but was iffy on if it was really what I wanted. Then last week I saw this post on the off beat price and absolutely fell in love with this bride's shawl. First of all, that blue is gorgeous! And second of all, that shawl doesn't look old ladyish at all (which is something that's held me back from knitting them before). Something like that would be absolutely perfect to wear for my wedding so yesterday I browsed around on ravelry for ideas. I came up with two shawls that I liked a lot that looked like they were within my capabilities.

I really like Ishbel and Haruni. I ordered yarn to go with each pattern, Dream in Color Absolute Magenta (in smooshy, not classy but the smooshy link is gone now) and Malabrigo MB Cuarzo. I haven't settled on which one I will knit with what yarn. I got purple because my bridesmaids will be wearing purple so that would match. But I don't want to be super matchy matchy so I got a crazy color too just in case I just decide to be an odd ball. I'm thinking the Haruni would just be the tits in that Magenta color. But could I actually buckle down and knit that thing by September? I'm sure a talented and disciplined knitter could knock that bad boy out in a matter of weeks but it'll probably take me from now until September and I might be finished with it if I'm lucky. Ishbel looks easier and probably a quicker knit but it doesn't quite have the wow factor that Haruni has.

In other knitting news, I'm working on a new pair of socks. I know, I know! They're like my comfort knitting. I can't think of anything else to knit so I always go back to socks (because really, knitting scarves and hats in May would just be silly). But these are cute little ankle socks that will be 1) quick to finish and 2) might actually see some use this summer. They are the Breeze socks from knitty. I started them yesterday and I've already turned the heel and started the gusset decreases! I like this whole 'not knitting a leg' thing with socks! I might actually have a sock by the end of the week.

Harry Potter Jaywalkers

So I finally got around to finishing my Harry Potter Jaywalkers. The pattern got kind of boring the second time around and I'm still not in love with the yarn so I didn't knit on them as often. I maybe picked them up once or twice a week and knit a few rounds here and there. But they are done. I did the second pair on a slightly smaller needle size so the second sock fits much better. I didn't bother lining the starting point of the yarn up so they're definitely fraternal twins.



The weather is warm now so it will be awhile before these guys see any use. Maybe by the time cool weather comes around I'll warm up to them a bit.

Now I need to find some small, warm weather appropriate projects to knock out to get my average back on track. Taking 2 months to knit a sock totally threw me off track for doing 1 project a month.