Nutkin Round 2

So I did decide to go with finishing a pair of socks (can you believe I've only finished one pair after knitting all of these socks?). I'm making good progress on Nutkin 2.



I'm about halfway down the foot and I made it through the short row heel thanks to this tutorial that someone directed me to last time I whined about my Nutkin. The pictures and detailed instructions were great. I can't say that I'm a fan of this heel though. It's just so fiddly and even though I did it right I still think it's messy looking.



Messy messy! It won't be as gappy as the original sock, so that's nice but I'm not crazy about how it looks. I think the heel flap is much neater. Oh well, at least I'm getting another pair of socks under my belt. That is, unless I decide to rip up the first one and do it all over again the right way.


In other yarny related news, I got two luscious skeins of Malabrigo Silky Merino for Christmas. One in the Marruecos colorway and the other in Bobby Blue. What should I knit with them? Perhaps I'll consult my other Christmas gift Brave New Knits to see if it has any ideas. Whatever it is, it will need to be small, I've only got 300 yards to work with...

Finished!

I finished and blocked the Peak Island Monday night. It's definitely cozy and warm. I tried a few different ways wearing it but couldn't really settle on the best place to put the buttons on. So I'm gonna send them to Manda with the scarf, let her figure out how she likes to wear it best then she can put the buttons where they work for her. The beast has finally been slain! I was going to stick it in the mail today on my lunch break but then realized I hadn't taken any pictures! So sorry Manda, it'll have to wait until I take a few quick pictures for posterity's sake.:)

The Citron is going along quite nicely right now. I'm not too far into it yet since I've had like 6 hours of homework to do and I've been furiously working on the Peak Island, trying to get it finished. I've only finished the first section and am 3 or 4 rows into the second. I am LOVING this Malabrigo lace. It's SO soft. I imagine once it's finished it will be my go to wrap/scarf for pretty much everything (I never match my accessories to what I'm wearing. Or to each other really. Today I'm wearing a blue scarf, purple hat and pink gloves.). If I had more patience I would knit a sweater with it. It's just that wonderful. I'm not really enjoying knitting it on my denise interchangeables though. The yarn keeps getting stuck at the join. I'm tempted to order some knit picks circs in 24" just to make the process that much nicer. I've been eyeing their harmony interchangeables lately but $70 is a lot to part with at the moment...

Pictures tonight! Promise!

Thorpe V 2.0

I decided since I was snow bound this weekend I wanted an instant gratification project. You know, for sanity's sake and all. I wanted a hat, and I had some yummy purple Malabrigo to use so I spent late Friday evening browsing through hat patterns trying to settle on one. I almost made an Amanda hat. And I was tempted by the Star Crossed Beret but I didn't have the right needles for it. I kind of wanted a Koolhaas but that totally doesn't seem like an instant gratification project at all. After all that I just settled on making myself a Thrope. I wanted a warm hat (my Odessa doesn't cover my ears and my Divine hat is kind of drafty) and I wanted something that I knew I could finish fast enough to wear while the snow was still around and Thrope just totally fit the bill. I started it late yesterday morning and finished the second ear flap late last night (I would've had it done by 7ish but we had plans for dinner at a friend's place). I did the trim and braids this morning just to finish it off.

My dear friend Chris modeling my hat for me.

The colors are a bit twee and more suitable for a 12 year old girl, but I don't really care. It's adorable and warm and that makes me happy.

I love the purple. The striping is subtle but interesting.

You can see the spot where I joined the new yarn in garter stitch and doubled it a bit is a hot mess. I made the large size since the yarn I used was thinner than what was called for in the pattern. That worked out nicely. It's pretty much the perfect size and my ears are no longer cold.

General consensus is that it needs a ball on top. Maybe I'll get around to adding one to it this week just to finish the look.

Free yarn!

There are few things I love more than getting free yarn. My lovely boyfriend gave me a $25 gift certificate to the Loopy Ewe for my birthday on Thursday. I just picked out what I wanted and I'm pretty excited about my purchase.

I got a hank of Cherry Tree Hill Fingering Semi-solid in Cherry (on sale for $12! w00t!) and a hank of Malabrigo lace in Taureg.

I'm definitely thinking I may make a Citron with the Malabrigo. That blue is just gorgeous and I think I'd just look smashing with it next to my face with my blue eyes and red hair. Not sure what I'll do with the Cherry Tree Hill. Maybe a pair of Monkeys? That would be awfully fun. I just couldn't pass it up at that price and I don't have any red yarn to speak of.

I also recently purchased some Malabrigo worsted from the Loopy Ewe. I'll post pictures of that as soon as I wind it into balls. Still no ball winder thanks to Joanne's website being ultra stupid. Grr. 

I did knit a fair amount on Manda's scarf last night while watching the new Star Trek movie. I knit through the whole thing, only taking a brief break for cake. I still didn't get entirely through the hood portion but at least it was progress.