Every good hat needs a ridiculous scarf

After my self-proclaimed success with Yulie, it only seemed fitting that I have a laughably oversized scarf to go with it. I wanted to pull a color from the many in the hat with the half-hearted goal of a slightly awkward combination.

I settled on a super chunky yarn, Lion Wool-Ease Thick and Quick, which knits up on hilariously large size 19 needles. For the stitch pattern, I wanted something simple, but not plain. I settled on a faux-herringbone pattern. The right side has that cute zig-zaggy look, while the wrong side looks like boring purl bumps.

Hopefully the end ensemble is cozy and cute instead of weird and homeless.

Destroyed Cowl: Part II

For those interested, the Destroyed Cowl, aka my first fall knit, is just a big rectangle of stockinette stitch. Boring to knit, but good for TV watching. Fairly mindless. But, oh yay for dropping stitches on purpose!!

As always, the Kitchener stitch was way more annoying than expected. It's supposed to make the cowl a continuous loop of knitting. Blocking will even this out some.

But as you can see, I made some mistakes.

Okay, a LOT of mistakes here at the end... Fortunately, I think these won't be noticeable unless someone is studying it.

Next up: dyeing.

It's fall!

It rained today, and when I left from work, hello, it was fall. The breeze was chilly and I wanted scarves, sweaters and mittens (ok, maybe not mittens). Oh, let the fall knitting commence!

Maybe a chunky shawl collared cardigan like this (from Fall '09 Knitscene)?

Or this destroyed cowl (by Martha Merzig)?

Starting and Finnish-ing

To plan for some upcoming travel (coupled with Knitter's Mercantile summer sale) I decided I needed a hipster-jet-set-bandana-scarf-shawl-thingy. I wanted lace, but not frilly. I settled on a pretty simple, geometric pattern called Fifi.

The only catch was that the pattern was written in Finnish. Because the pattern was charted, I really only needed to know what each symbol represented, plus any unique finishing details. Thank goodness for Ravelry, I found someone who'd knit this pattern and seemed to know English. I was able to email her and sort things out. She is my Terhi-godmother.
Nonetheless, I am the proud owner of two skeins of Twisted Sisters Zazu merino in monochromatic variegated gold. I looooooove it. It is precisely the color of marigolds. Or more appropriately mums, I suppose, since it's fall.

Chronic Project Starter's Anonymous, here I come

Okay, here's the run down... The plan was to finish a couple of projects from knitty, to possibly enter them in the contest (hey, why not.) Instead, I've started about a zillion new ones, including:


Okay, I saw this pattern and literally couldn't resist. The hem on it is so cute. It's going to be a little ringer sweater shirt thingy. Way cuter to wear than describe, apparently.

This is a knitty pattern, so it doesn't count. The pattern is supposedly inspired by Tiffany lamps, so I thought it might look cool to take it's photo near a lamp, or pinned to an easel or something. They're really fun to work on when I have the patience.


This is my latest bedtime project. It's kind of lost in the picture, but it's a corkscrew scarf. I think I might give it to the secretary at work for Christmas. It's really good for picking up and doing just a couple of rows at a time.

I saw this at the store on sale for $2.15, and thought, hello, grocery bags. Right now mine are a hodge podge, and I'd like to have a "set." So if you get a grocery bag that looks suspiciously used, that's why. Sorry. Save the planet with my castoffs...

And last but not least, my dyeing experiment! Cannot wait. Going to be a "stats is done" treat next week.

Maybe I could finish something if I didn't spend so much time going to work and class...?

Christmas thoughts...

To start, I'm not obsessed, I do not like "It's a Wonderful Life," and I do not have a year round Christmas countdown. But when you are a) broke b) a knitter, logic would suppose that most of your Christmas gifts will be hand made. So as mentioned, I am planning already.

Today I was thinking about my boss and secretary in particular. I started by thinking a simple scarf with a yummy yarn would have to be appreciated by everyone. But that's coming from a person who appreciates a homemade gift. I would hate hate hate for her to feel obligated to wear it to work because of me and then feel ridiculous. So now I'm considering gifts for the home; baskets, grocery bag holder, wine cozy and the like.

I guess I'm saying it's easier to give a bad gift to someone you don't have to see much. Keep that in mind when you get your fun-fur scarf.

Sciencing again

After a long (and undeserved) vacation, I have to return to work and class. The class is biostatistics, the science is S. pneumoniae, and I am sleepy. So while I should be paying attention to the lecturer right now, I am instead thinking of why a) I am not in bed, and b) I am not knitting this, my current project.
The pattern was easy to memorize and I have always particularly enjoyed lace.
But for now, statistics. (Although, I would argue that knitting is totally mathy.)

Mad at Clapotis

I was super excited to start Clapotis, but now I'm a little bummed out. I dropped the first ladder and it's really loose looking. I'm thinking of trying it with smaller needles, but if that doesn't work, I'm stumped. I'm told that the yarn should be okay for the project so......?