green.ketzle.net: knitting

i should have started with the two school spirit projects so the poor cowl wouldn't have abandonment issues. c'est la vie! c'est la guerre! c'est la pomme de terre!

project 3 for loopy academy: Mittens in a solid or semi-solid colorway in a Worsted weight (extra credit for using a new-to-you cast on or bind off). i'm using cascade 220 superwash in violet and the irish hiking mittens pattern and boom! almost before i knew it, there was mitten number 1. while the cast-on was not totally new, i did finally suss out the variation of the long-tail cast-on wherein you do it differently depending on whether the stitch will be a knit or a purl on the first knit round. not as hard as i thought, just requires looking at the pattern as you create each cast-on stitch.

and i was so excited at finishing it so quickly, i decided to give the cowl a little love. i'm going to stitch the cast-on row rather than knit it to create the picot edge, mostly because i miscalculated the amount of yarn i needed for the cast-on, and had quite a bit left. and also because it is less fiddly. less fiddly is good. i made it halfway though the first lace section before the guilt started overwhelmng me and...

...i bound off two or three more sections of the never-ending shawl. it is more than halfway done now.

10 october 2014 spirit

switching gears for a moment...

i wanted to surprise my daughter with a hat she could use on all the spirit days she has at school, and a business trip allowed me the chance to whip one out. the second assignment for loopy academy is: Hat from a designer new to you, in a Sport or DK weight. so i grabbed the skein of lorna's laces sport in purple and yellow, the yarnster pattern by shannon cook, and i headed for chicago.

three days later, after a few long meetings and some night knitting, i had a hat.

and she likes it! i like how the self-striping yarn combined with the mesh-like pattern ended up creating something that looks more like a checkerboard, or houndstooth tweed, than plain old stripes.

02 october 2014 school

i don't have time to knit.

but that has never stopped me before! so of course, i am going to participate in the loopy ewe's new loopy academy. and i am starting with the first assignment for this semester: Cowl in a multi-colored (defined as 2 or more distinct colors in the same skein) or self-striping Fingering weight colorway.

this skein of trekking xxl is navy blue, moss green and gray and i am going to knit a willow cowl out of it. i had a long meeting today and was able to not only cast on, but knit the first 8 rows. that sets me up for the turning row to make the picot edging. it doesn't seem as though it will tax my brain too much which is good, as i am working 10 hour days, and on weekends, of late.

i need creative relaxing, not creative challenges at this point; calm and quiet is the order of the evenings.

green.girl knitting: commentary