Mystic light

Back in November or so, I started my Mystic Light Shawl. Shortly thereafter, I was distracted by holiday knitting and put the poor shawl down. I don't know why, but earlier this week the shawl was demanding to be knitted, so I picked it back up. I'm making fairly decent progress on it-I'm nearly finished with the first chart. Whatcha think?

I think I'm going to end up giving this to my mom as a late Christmas/early Mother's day present. She likes dark colors, so it is right up her alley. Lately, she's been getting cold easier, so hopefully this will help a little.

Not much else has progressed in the my little land of knitting. I've been knitting a row here and there on my green lace & cable socks.

First FO of 2010!

Meet Odessa (rav link)!

Man did she try to kick my butt. For such a cute little hat, you'd think it would be easy. There's nothing wrong with the pattern. I simply cannot judge how much yarn I have to work with. I had 1 full skein of Tempted Luxe grrl (cashmere!!!). I used a little more than half of it to make my Augusta fingerless gloves. Ever the enabler, Muriel (aka bffofwendy) assured me that I had enough yarn to make the hat. So, I cast on on Saturday. The pattern suggests you knit in pattern until 5.5" from the CO edge. I know I have a small head, so I knit 5.25" instead. I got 3 freaking decrease rows from the end and ran out of yarn. I tried to frog it back, but I didn't have the patience and frogged the whole thing instead. I CO again on Sunday, and this time I knitted for 4.75". See that little bit of yarn on the right side of the pic? That is all I have left.

Olympics and other stuff

I've started a Ravelympics team called Team Sprout, and we already have 11 or so members! I'm trying to be a good captain by being informative and all that jazz. The whole point is to pick a project that is challenging to you, and that type of thing is different for every person. I'm really excited about the Ravelympics. I'm going to be a bit crazy here and try the blackberry cabled cardigan (photo from Rav):

I'm going to use Knitpicks Swish DK for this one because I just don't want to spend a ton of money. I'm going to do Stilwell with Jo Sharp (did I mention that I found out that the pattern will be available in April?), and that's going to be about $100 or so. Therefore, I'm going with the cheap stuff. I could go cheaper and use the Knitpicks Telemark yarn (100% peruvian wool), which would be a whole $30, but at $50 total, I'll splurge for the superwash Swish. I'm going to use the Garnet Heather colorway. See, I'm challenging myself. Just getting away from blue is a challenge for me.

I've started an entrelac scarf with my blue malabrigo worsted. If you remember, I originally used this yarn for my owls sweater, and it striped so oddly that I frogged the sweater in frustration. I think it does a much better job in entrelac. See?

Entrelac is not nearly as hard as I thought it would be. It's only a bunch of short rows and picking up stitches. Easy peasy.

I'm adding another resolution to my list. I need to learn to knit continental style. I am a thrower. Throwing is holding the yarn in your right hand, and continental is holding it the left hand. I tried to be all clever and start a dishcloth that had both knits and purls (and I used cotton yarn), but I ended up tying my fingers together. So, I went and grabbed some boring wool yarn from the stash and I've just been knitting along. I still haven't gotten my gauge standardized because I keep forgetting which way to hold the yarn. I'll get it eventually. I need to be able to knit both ways so that fair isle will be easier.