Brief Pernicious Scarf Update!

Am too lazy to take a picture, but in case I haven't mentioned it, things are going much, much more quickly now that the knitting thimble has been added into the mix and I have figured out how to cope with it. If I'd had it from the beginning, I would be much further along. This is what I get for trying to economize.

Anyway, this is how far along I am:

Now is the winter of
Made glorious summer
And all the clouds tha
In the deep bosom of

So I'm slightly more than halfway! (This is both good--halfway done!--and terrifying: OMG ONLY 26 OR SO DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS HOW WILL I EVER FINISH!!!) Another time-saving measure is to cut down on how much purple I put in. It looks fan-fucking-tastic, but it really slows me down. So I think I'm gonna do York and house, or maybe York and buried, and call it a day. I'd kind of like to do discontent, but that is a fucking long word and it's not going to happen. I guess I could just do disco, right?

my family is a pain in the rear.

So. I know we went through these angstings last year, but my family does this Yankee swap sort of thing at Christmas. And I want to put in a pair of knit hats, you know, one manly, one for the ladies. And ok, I'm expecting the man-hat to be kind of boring-ish, I thought I'd just do a 2x2 ribbed hat, because I made one for myself last year and I kind of love it, but I'd like to do something more interesting for the woman's hat. Only I don't know that my family will be interested in taking care of non-superwash wool (though really, how often do you wash your hats? Oh great, have I just exposed myself as a wearer of filthy hats?) and even worse, the women on that side of the family wear so much black. It's an epidemic. I don't really want to knit a black hat, not even an awesome black slouchy hat. I'm sure it would be quite elegant and all, but . . . in case you hadn't noticed, I am a huge fan of color.

I'd also like to use yarn I already have . . . and I've got some brown, and some blue, and some navy acrylic that I might use for the man-hat--unless I go with the brown--and I've also got some NICE yarn, some alpaca left over from my green vest, and some random aqua tweedy stuff that I used for one of the wee hats, but I still have plenty to make a big hat . . . but omg, So Much Black.

Maybe I'll just go with the aqua tweedy stuff and see if I can bring them over to the land of rainbows. There are at least three people who would wear that color. Maybe as many as six. (My family is huge: we're talking about at least 20 women who will be in this swap.)

Anyway. Not that I really need anything else to knit right now, but the Pernicious Scarf is pretty much a stationary project, what with the enormous chart and all, and it's not good tv-watching material.

Omg, and I just wrote a manifesto. I tend to think better when I'm writing things out. Aiee! Sorry! Lemme go knit something!

We Interrupt This Pernicious Scarf . . .

. . . to bring you a wee cute hat. A birthday present for my two-year-old niece who is not actually my niece, but whatever, close enough. My best friend's kid.



It's your basic wee hat with a moss stitch brim, and then some embroidery tossed on there to up the cute factor. I think it's probably too big, but kids do grow, don't they? And she has lots of fluffy hair that needs room, too!

As for the Pernicious Disco Scarf, I have turned it back right side out, and my hand and arm are much happier. Sigh. So much for my floats!

crap.

So about two days ago I decided to try the thing where you knit a colorwork item inside out for better control of the floats, and while yes, it's nice for the floats, my left wrist hates this plan with the fire of a thousand suns.

Ow. I have an extremely unhappy hand. I guess I'll have to go back to right-side-out, because I certainly won't get this scarf done if I cripple myself before December.

Sigh. It's always so sad when an innovation doesn't work.

The Eagle has landed!

Ok, so that was a little dramatic. I'm just excited because my norwegian knitting thimble arrived in the mail two days ago! Yay! It is, indeed, a handy little device. I'm still contemplating taping it or something so I can wear it closer to the tip of my finger, but it definitely helps even as it is.

I ordered some other random yarn with it too--I'd never ordered anything from KnitPicks, so I thought I'd see what it was like, yeah, a likely excuse, right? Anyway, I love all the colors I picked, and the superwash sock yarn feels pretty nice, but I don't know if I'd buy their other plain wool again. Of course, I haven't knit it up yet or anything. Hmm, but maybe I could start some socks tonight! I could use some football-and-hockey-game-watching knitting, and my Pernicious Disco Scarf won't do for that. Socks, now, socks I could do.

My little cute dad has gone to a football game this evening, and is wearing a pair of socks I made him. He claims it's 'for luck.' He's so cute. He's the kind of dad who, upon being asked once by his son to pick up some gum from the grocery store, will then make sure to pick up that same kind of gum once a week, so his child won't run out.

Anyway. Yay knitting thimble! Yay awesome-colored yarn! (I really want to make squirrel mittens with the awesome-colored yarn, but if I do any more colorwork right now I will totally scream.)

omg, more pictures!

Of the Disco Scarf, this time. Behold how far I have gotten:



And this is the back:



I wish I'd just thought to do the sort of faux-lice pattern bit that you see to the right the whole way on the back. I thought the squares would be cool--and they are--but they were incredibly slow, and I think they may have a problem with puckering. The floats are pretty long, and I can straighten them out when I try, but they still scare me.

I still think the whole thing is going to be too wide and too short, but then, I know my brother doesn't like long scarves, so maybe it'll work for him. One thing I know, it'll be extremely warm. Like glorious summer, in fact.

photos!

Ok, we're just going to ignore the fact that I had computer fail and the first one isn't properly rotated. Ok? It's the kind of day where we have to ignore that sort of thing. Right. Moving on!

Three wee hats:







I love the green-and-grey hat, but I'm not entirely sold on the other two. Oh well: it's not me or my kid who will be wearing them! I'll see if my friend (and her daughter) like either of them.

back on the horse!

Whew. So after the mini-hat explosion (they're kind of cute, maybe I'll do pictures tomorrow?) I am back on the Disco Scarf Horse. Naturally I don't have pictures, but I'm this far along:

Now is the
Made gloriou
And all the cl
In the deep

I've got some partial letters, too, but I don't think blogger's going to let me do those. :)

Today's knitting was helped along by figuring out how to (sort of) hold both yarns in one hand. It's more efficient, but still not great, so I went and ordered a norwegian knitting thimble. It should get here in about a week--I'm hoping it'll help me get another couple rows in per day. And really, interesting movies help this scarf along as much as anything else. Today I watched the Branagh Henry V, which, omg, is SO DRAMATIC, I didn't remember it being so overly dramatic (I tend to think that Shakespeare is dramatic enough, and doesn't really need extras,) but then, I don't know if I've watched it since I was a teenager, and when you're a teenager, the more dramatic the better, right? I certainly didn't remember that Christian Bale was in it. I kept expecting him to sing that Santa Fe song from Newsies, or do his ridiculous Batman voice. I much preferred David Gwillim's (I know, I spell his name wrong every time) Henry--his Crispin's Day speech sounded like he was just, you know, talking, and making it up as he went, whereas Branagh's Henry knew he was making a Big Important Speech. Branagh's Henry knew he was a big important hero the whole time, which was perhaps a bit obnoxious.

Anyway. Ooops this is supposed to be about knitting, not acting. Well, now you know what I'm thinking about whilst I knit the Disco Scarf! I think I'm going to get that 1990's Richard III with Ian McKellen next time I go to the library. And maybe the Olivier Henry V, though I tend to think Olivier was probably more effective on stage than on screen. But there I go again! Sorry!

Pictures tomorrow!

oh dear.

So last night I totally snapped. Couldn't deal with long-term projects in thin yarn anymore. Made some baby hats. Omg, they're totally cute! And wow, you wouldn't believe how thick worsted weight yarn seems after you've been using sock and fingering pretty much exclusively for two months. That stuff knits up like lightning! Anyway, no pictures yet, but some cute hats. And I think I'm about to make another hat, for me, because we all know that if there's one thing I need, it's another hat. I do wear them, though, I swear I do! I LIKE wearing them!

I blame this Hat Attack on the flu. It's making my mind fuzzy, and I can't tell good ideas from bad.