Thrope!

So I finally managed to slough through the 28inches of seed stitch for Manda's scarf and have made it to the hood increases. It's amazing how a simple little change in a pattern like increasing every other row just suddenly makes a pattern interesting again. It definitely reminded me why I haven't bothered to knit myself any scarves yet. They. Just. Take. So. Damn. Long. AGGG! But it does look nice and it feels nice and I think it will turn out just swell once it's finished!

So in the meantime, to keep myself knitting and sane I started working on a Thorpe hat for my friend Mike since I promised him an ear flat hat ages ago and never got around to it thanks to Christmas knitting. A few thoughts 1.) WTF? Cast on 4 stitches and put them on 4 different needles?! IT'S IMPOSSIBLE! I couldn't keep them straight and needles kept slipping out all willy nilly. I had to just knit the first two rounds on one needle then divide and start knitting in the round. 2.) I definitely prefer working from the bottom up instead of top down for that very reason. I've got a stupid looking hole at the top of my hat that I'll have to sew up now. 3.) At least it's working up quickly.

I wound up two more balls of yarn on my swift from Kevin. Still no ball winder though. It's not bad as long as I'm doing worsted weight or heavier, but the fingering weight hank I wound took FOR-EV-ER. Stupid Joann's needs to get their website working already.

Sorry no pictures this time around! Maybe after I get some more progress made on the scarf or the Thorpe! I at least wanted to start the new year off with a blog before I got too lazy.

Marram v 2.0

I finished another Marram for my co-worker who wears purple and/or gray nearly every day. Here is the finished result. Pictures taken w/my new camera (clearly I still have some learning to do with this thing).



The top really is where the magic happens with this hat.



I still haven't finished Manda's scarf (bad friend!) and I haven't finished or started anything else. I really need to finish it so I can work on that sock that I left behind before the holidays. Poor thing is still tucked away in a bag, heel half finished, just waiting for me to pick it up again. One day, soon.

Oh, and gift cards apparently aren't working on the joann website right now so still no ball winder. *pout* By the time the gift cards at working I can probably just afford to buy one without the gift card. But I really want to use it for this because there's not really much else I want to buy at joann's and the store here is kind of depressing.

Marram round 2, complete!

I started Kev's Marram Friday afternoon (we got out early thanks to the snow) and finished it Sunday evening. Pretty much all I did this weekend was knit and bake cookies non-stop. No mistakes this time around. It's the right size. No problems at all! No pictures yet since I haven't been able to get him out in the sunlight to take a quick picture.

But since that one knit up so quick, I decided to start another one last night and it's going by just as quickly. The ribbing and first 2 repeats of the pattern are done. It's fun and easy to do and the finished hat just looks so dang clever and more difficult than it really is. This one will be purple/gray (the first was gray/gray).

The cookiepalooza that I had all weekend long was fun. I did two batch of peanut butter, one sugar, one chocolate chip and one chocolate christmas tree peppermint batch. Oh, and one batch of lemony snickets last night after replenishing my butter supply. I think my urge to bake has been satisfied and all of the cookies were gone before lunch after bringing them into work. I work with a bunch of pigs. :-p

Manda's scarf is the last holiday knit I have left to do. Fortunately I've got a grace period on it and will probably use it as my Christmas knitting when I go home to see the family.

Hope y'all have a fantastic holiday!

Thanksgiving wrap up...

Just a quick post to keep Manda off my back about not posting (it's pub quiz night, no way I'll get around to taking pictures tonight!).

Thanksgiving was a wonderful holiday. Drove the grueling 12 hours to Norwell, MA to spend the holiday with Kevin's family. Even drug my Mom along for the trip. Things went quiet well. No major communication issues, even though Kevin's Grammie got on to his Mom for Not Telling Her Claudia Had An Accent! (Hello? Southwest Virginia?) Ate lots of turkey and pie. Did plenty of shopping.

I made it out to Windsor Button for the first time. (I had to resist the urge to visit Newbury Yarn when I spotted it next to Lush. I don't think the boys would've tolerated it.)  I let Manda pick out some yarn for her Christmas present that I'm knitting and I got myself two little hanks of Lorna's Laces in Clara's Garden and a hank of Malabrigo in a colorway similar to this. I meant to have them wound up into little cakes but forgot so they're currently in their weird little hank forms right now whimpering in the corner begging to be knit. I may take them over to the LYS (with those hanks from knit picks) to have them wound up this weekend. But that means I'll have to buy even more yarn because I'd just feel guilty having them wind yarn that I bought  from some other store! Such is life.

Not much progress has been made on my sock. I actually started knitting a hat on my vacation. I'm working on Marram for Kevin since I haven't knit him anything in ages. It's dark gray and gray and I like the pattern, even if I've f'd it up a bit where the rounds begin. And f'd it up even more on the decreases. But it still looks nice and he'll never know the difference. As long as it covers his ears (which is questionable at this point since we know how I suck at hat sizing) he'll be happy.

So yeah, pictures this weekend. I should have a finished hat and maybe some more yummy yarn!