Plans gone awry, and others to fruition

Some days I just can't brain because I have the dumb. I had yesterday off, with not plans other than to throw some clothes in the washer to fetch groceries sometime before bed. So tried to knit. I dropped a stitch on a hat, and so help me, was completely unable to pick it up and ladder it through with a crochet hook. I know how to pick up stitches with a crochet hook. It's plain stockinette. I did nothing but split the wool of each stitch. So frustrating.

Then I thought I could knit. I'm doing the fairly easy dragon scale pattern. I know that one starts on the bottom row of a pattern and moves to the left. I can read Hebrew and Arabic, I know about reading from right to left. Instead, while I read it in the correct direction, I started on the top row, rather than the bottom. Then I did the purl row right after it, so now I have to rows of 40 stitches each to tink. I decided I was not smart enough yesterday to fool around with sticks and string any more, so I just put it away. A perfectly good day for knitting gone to waste.

Something that did go well was that my friend Greg came over to learn how to do the decreases for his hat. I'd taught him to knit last month, gave him some yarn and needles for Christmas, and we sat down, he learned quickly, and I started him on a hat in the round. I did not tell him that knitting in the round is a little harder than knitting flat. What he didn't know did not kill him. So now he's made a really kick-ass hat. He came by to learn the decrease pattern, so we did that for a bit. His stitches are still a bit tight, and he had a bit of a challenge to knit two together, but he did it and eventually he'll relax his tension to something a little easier to manage.

This is the hat Greg made, with yarn I got for him. I cannot remember the brand, but I do know it is a superwash wool. His colour choices were black and red. He has decided he never wants to knit in black yarn ever again. And I don't blame him.

New Hats and Stash Busting

While I haven't posted much, I have been trying to knit some every day. I completed two hats, made from yarn that I got at Forever Yarn, one for me and one for Brandon. I had noted that I kept buying yarn there, but never knitting it up. So I finally sat down and used some yarn from that store. Here are the results:

The yarn is Woolfolk and the yarn is super soft Merino. I can't tell you what the colourways are, since they don't really list them on their website, so we'll call them Grey and Creme. That works for me. I had a lot of fun making these hats since the wool was so wonderful to work with.

I have been thinking of other things to make with yarn bought at this particular shop, and I'm scouring Ravelry for patterns. The first time I was there I got some gorgeous Shibui Silk Cloud in a red colourway that has since been discontinued. I have three skeins, 330 yards each, and I'm at a loss for what to make. The patterns I seem to like most blend the Silk Cloud with other yarns, and I'm trying to stash bust, not buy more yarn.

I can't remember the name of the colourway, but I'm so disappointed that they discontinued it. This is a true "fuck-me-red".

I've been thinking of stash busting, and last night I cast on and knit the first four rows of some Baah La Jolla (in London Blue). No pictures yet, since four rows of garter in fingering weight yarn doesn't look like anything, but my plan is to make the Dragon Scale scarf, and you can see it by clicking the link dragon scale scarf.  I think it's really pretty. If I make this for the three friends at our annual Div School reunion, that's three skeins out of my stash. I know I have some purple La Jolla, so now I need to check the stash for other colours.

I like the idea of stash busting. I think I'll make a list of who should get what, and get started on some of these projects. And I hope I'll be able to post some of them before too long.