Pining for Winter Knitting

I just watched a Berroco video on slip-stitch knitting and I am dying to try it. I absolutely LOVE playing with color and finding new combinations, but I STINK at stranded knitting. I checked a book on slip-stitch knitting out of the library, but was uninspired by the patterns. Maybe I'll go on Amazon later and browse the knitting books.

The dilemma? I am a mostly-serial knitter. I have a few WIPs that I haven't worked on in awhile, a winter sweater that I ran out of yarn and money for, a really long scarf that I work on in between projects until I get bored with it again, and of course, my TKGA Master course that is languishing for want of a report on blocking. Present project is a summer sweater on size 3 needles which is taking FOREVER. The sleeves and back are done, and I've made it up to the waist shaping on the front, finally, which gives relief from endless miles of stockinette.

And, I confess, I placed an order from KnitPicks yesterday. But it's for a Christmas present for my husband, completely justifiable in my opinion. Never mind that I added on a few goodies to get the free shipping (blocking mat!).

I really should be cleaning house right now instead of pecking on the computer. ;)

Began Lace Ribbon Scarf and hate the needles

Well, it was back to Dallas this last weekend for Squirt (9-11 year old) quarter finals in youth hockey. They won all their games and advance to the semi-finals in Dallas next weekend, meaning I will miss the Stitch-n-Puck at the Blazers game next Friday night. Wah!

The Sideways Spencer is now too large to tote around, so started the Lace Ribbon Scarf on the Kollage square circular needles in size 3. Yarn I'm using is J. Knits Creative Hand-Dyed Superwash Me Light yarn in Washington DC colorway (screaming coral). I had a lot of trouble with the needles, coaxing the YOs back onto the needle from the cable was a tedious process. The Kollage needles have a rough join, at least my pair does when compared to the Addi Turbos. I think I'll either knit this onto an Addi set, or go buy a cheap set of straight metal sock-length needles or I'll never finish this. And the square needle, while a nice idea, means you practically have to line up the flat sizes of the needles when you're trying to dig into a K2tog or SSK. So, these were a poor choice for lace knitting, as far as I'm concerned, but I'm still willing to give them a try on other projects, if the store will let me feel the join before I buy another pair of them (ha).

The Knitting Gods have farted in my general direction

The Knitting Gods have farted in my general direction (to paraphrase Monty Python). I just returned from our 4-day trip to St. Louis for a hockey tournament. Now, you'd think that being gone from home for 4 days and living in a hotel, where there's no office, no phones to answer, no cooking, no laundry to wash or dog hair to vacuum off the kitchen floor, would practically guarantee long stretches of knitting time. So I planned for this. (Okay schemed would be a better word.) I wouldn't want to (gasp!) run out of knitting, so not only did I take ALL the yarn for the Sideways Spencer, I convinced myself that I'd get so much done on the Spencer that it would no longer be portable (since it's knit side-to-side all in one piece) and that I really needed a Backup Project to take to the rink with me. So I managed to squeeze in a trip to Gourmet Yarn during my Leaving Town Errands Run and bought J. Knits Superwash me Light Sock Yarn in the Washington DC colorway (shrieking salmon pink) to knit the Lace Ribbon Scarf on Knitty by Veronik Avery. I mean, a scarf is the ultimate portable project, next to socks, right? I even moved the Lace Ribbon Scarf from the queue to cast-on status in Ravelry.

As usual, stuff always takes longer than I think it will. Incorporating the sleeve
increases into the lace pattern took some thought and fiddling. Then, the pattern tells you that you HAVE to end on row 48 of the pattern before casting on for the body and your sleeve will be 16". Liars! 18-1/2" is my sleeve length, which just means I'll have to shorten the ribbing on the cuff when it's added later, I'm not stopping now!

Of course, you Knitting Police out there (you know who you are) are smirking and nodding wisely, muttering "She didn't meet Row Gauge with that yarn she substituted." If I meet row gauge it's a complete freaking accident. Patterns are usually written with lengths in inches specified instead of number of rows worked for poor knitting wretches like me. I'm convinced that the only person who ever met stitch AND row gauge on any project was the proverbial "little old lady from Pasadena, who only drove the car on Sundays to church" because she spent the REST OF HER TIME trying to meet both stitch and row gauge. Enough said.

And no, I didn't even START the damn scarf and Ravelry won't let me move it back to the queue, so it sits there, mocking me. Dammit.