In which she starts again.

Sigh. I knew I was going to frog it the moment I realized I was messing up (and then I re-re-re-read the instructions, and I was messing up a lot worse than I thought!), but that doesn't make it any easier to do! I put in a safety line, but I haven't done that before, and was going through ribbing, so it wasn't helpful beyond telling me to slow down the frogging process when I got close.



Back down to the ribbing, sigh.. I was at row 20 of the cabling before I frogged, and now I'm back up to row 6.



I think the travelling cables are looking better (since I'm following the pattern!), but I can't really tell yet. Hopefully they'll be fine, as I don't want to have to frog the whole thing again. >___>

On an unrelated note, Jenni linked me to Craftster, which I hadn't seen before. Oooo inspiration! But Lindsay, you need to get better at reading patterns before you start making up your own.. !!

...

In which things go horribly wrong.

OH NOES, FAIL. I just realized I've been working the travelling cables wrong on Nezumi (it's supposed to be c1 ktbl, but I was doing c1 k, but still doing k tbl on the non-cabled rows), but I'm already half done and I don't want to frog back to the top of the ribbing, but the cables are really horribly wonky and I should redo them. See?



SIGH. I'll see how I feel in a couple days.. but I'll probably wind up frogging it all. Good thing I wasn't planning on gifting it for a few months yet.. >____>

And to make me feel better, here's a FO. ;)


Pattern: Fetching from Knitty
Yarn: Patons Classic Merino Wool in Cream
Needles: US7 DPN
Modifications: Worked thumb over 8 stitches instead of 7; no picot edging; last row before bind-off knit as [k1, k2tog, k1, p1] to fight the flaring out that others have reported
Started: March 2007
Completed: April 2007

They got their trial run today, and kept my hands extremely toasty (if mildly scratchy at times). They're not as soft and comfy as my alpaca mitts, but they should be more durable and therefore stand up to the rigors of retail. XD Now I just have to finish the bright yellow Dashing pair..

...

In which things get colorful.

Because it's currently spring break, and because my sewing space is the shared living room and I don't feel like spending time with my roommate, I've been knitting! It's small, portable, (mostly) mindless, and doesn't involve interaction with others. ;)



This is Nezumi, in bright purple Wool-Ease. When I saw this pattern I immediately thought of Alisa (on the left) from my ren faire guild, so this will be for her. (The bright purple is because she got fabulous purple striped socks last year.. that she realized after the fact were Royal Purple and therefore couldn't be worn. XD) Of course, I probably won't give it to her until faire starts again, and since that isn't till the end of August, I shouldn't be working on this now.. but it's fun! And it's cabled!And it's really going incredibly fast, actually... I've got two skeins, so I'm thinking a pair of matching gloves/fingerless mitts with one of the cable motifs pulled from the hat.

With this hat, I'm experimenting with cabling without a cable needle. The cable fronts are much easier than the cable backs, but I can manage the c1b without a needle. The c2b's, on the other hand, elude me, so I still have to keep a cable needle on hand. Woe!

Also, I've been inspired by all the lovely stitch markers on etsy, but being a poor student I can't afford an awesome set. (See: Wool-Ease. XD) So I took some toggle clasps, jump rings, and nifty glass beads to make some of my own:



A lemon on the left, and a bunch of grapes on the right. The grapes are a lot more purple when they're not against purple! yarn, I swear. I'm really digging these, but the danglies get in the way when I'm slipping them, as they tend to sit on the back but I pass them to the front. Haven't quite figured out a way to slip them over smoothly, yet...

...