Saturday, November 21, 2009

A cowl and a sock walked into a bar...

My nifty little Christmas knitting deadline countdown informs me that I have only 33 days to finish my holiday knitting, so I've been knitting like a fiend. That doesn't mean I can't be distracted by pretty shiny new projects for myself though. A week ago Thursday, the lovely Muriel (bffofwendy to those in the plurk/ravelry world) decided that we should do a friendship KAL. She had secretly gone and bought 2 skeins of Malabrigo silky merino, and all we had to do was pick a pattern. I would never have picked a cowl, because, to be honest, I thought that cowls look a little ridiculous and stuffy. With only 1 skein of yarn each, we had to pick something relatively small, so we ultimately decided on the Noble cowl (rav link).

I knit a little bit faster than Muriel does, so I gave her a decent two day head start. It's not my fault that she frogged her progress and started over. Anyway, I finished it on Tuesday. A picture was demanded of me wearing it, so I'll post it in all of its iSight awfulness. I think it looks pretty good on me despite the camera:

I decided to knit a slightly smaller size than the pattern called for by removing 1 pattern repeat. I also didn't knit the last 14 rows, because I am pretty small and didn't want to suffocate in the darn thing. Here it is in properly photographed glory:

Moving on to holiday knitting, I'm knitting a pair of socks for a friend for Christmas. She has no idea that she's getting socks, so I hope she'll like them. I'm knitting Wendy's Lace and Cable Socks using Tempted's Bah Humbug Good Grrl.


I've had to frog the past 2 socks I've tried to knit because I simply didn't like the pattern. It is a wonderful breath of fresh air to knit a pattern that I love. I started the pattern portion of the sock last night, and I've already completed 2 full pattern repeats! I hope these will knit up quickly. I'm slightly worried that I won't be able to give them away.

On my holiday knitting to-do list:
  1. I need to finish my Owls sweater by Nov 30th in order to be eligible for prizes in the KAL. I have 1 sleeve left before I start the owls portion (circles the shoulders). Cross your fingers that I can find the motivation to finish it.
  2. I wanted to knit a pair of socks for Mom. I have the yarn, but I'm not sure what pattern to do.
  3. DH should probably get a pair too, although hopefully he'll understand if I'm not finished with his until January.
  4. I'd like to knit an Odessa hat for another friend, but I'm not sure.
Happy (slightly early) Thanksgiving, and good luck to anyone else under a knitting deadline.

2 comments:

Dragon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dragon said...

The cowl looks great! I love the pattern you used for it. It looks super comfy :)

The sock looks like it's turning out very well, that's a great pattern too. The yarn you're using looks kind of Christmasy :)

Best of luck getting all your knitting done on time! :D