Week 51 in Review....

What a week!!! Everything Christmas and DD birthday related just took up too much time. While I did manage to get some knitting done, it is not enough to brag about. Hopefully Icarus will be the highlight of Week 52. That sure would be a good way to end 2006. In the mean time, hope you enjoy what is left of the holidays.

Tada!!!! Bobbi is Finished

• Yarn: Less than one skein of Joann's Sensation Dolcetto
• Needles: Size 9(US) DPN's

Bobbi only took a couple of days of sporadic knitting to complete. If bobbles hadn't been involved, knitting time would have been cut by 2/3's.

The pattern is from Hip Knit Hats. Of the 40 designs in the book, I chose this one for three reasons.

1. I was bored with some of the other WIP's that I had when I decided to knit a hat.
2. I never knitted bobbles before so I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to practice.
3. One of my sisters had requested the hat a while back.

My take on Bobbi....

I found the author's method of making bobbles quite easy although I do need to practice her technique in order to get consistent results. After a while, I did get a little annoyed with all those little bobbles and was very happy when the last one was done. In the meantime I do plan on practicing the more "traditional" bobble making method and decide which one I like better.

My copy of Hip Knit Hats is a first edition and for those of you contemplating knitting this hat please be aware that the pattern does have a lot of errors. First of all, the required number of CO stitches is incorrect as are the directions for rounds 8, 12, and 20. A newbie knitter would probably get very frustrated with the instructions trying to figure out why they are ending up with too many stitches or why their hat is not coming out like the one in the pictures. I hate to write in my books, but in this case I might just have to in order to correct the mistakes I found. That or use post-it notes as an alternative.

Week 50 of 2006 in Review

Just a quick summary of this week's knitting occurances since other duties took up most of my time.

On Knitting....

Chart 3 of Icarus is completed and ready for Chart 4.



Bobbi is completed. Pictures and related info will be posted this week.

Only of couples of rows were completed on the Red Scarf. Hopefully more length will be added to it this week.

On Stash Building...

Nada, nothing, nil! :)

Week 49 of 2006 in Review

Progress report

On Knitting...

Hard to believe but true, I have 4 WIP going on.

Icarus has been completed up to Chart 2. Only three more to go!! YAY!!! Of course, if I hadn't started anything else, I'd probably be a lot closer to finishing this shawl. But I decided I needed a hat, so I cast on Bobbi from Hip Knit Hats using Joann Sensations Dolcetto in white.

This week I also cast on the Red Scarf using Wool Ease in Cranberry. My plans for using a pattern from ScarfStyle didn't happen as I had planned. Instead I am using the Mock Cable Rib stitch pattern from The Knitting Directory as a guide and I am liking the effect. (Hopefully the yarn blocks out nicely to show off the pattern better.) As a matter of fact, I ended up using this same stitch pattern for a headband which a 3 year old requested.

On Stash Building...

This weekend I took advantage of Joann's 50% coupon and bought Barbie and Me for DD. I also took advantage of their additional 50% off clearance items and bought these happy little balls of yarn...

Camelia in pink on the left and Margherita in green and pink to the right. These should make nice hats for a little girl.

Week 48 of 2006 in Review

On Knitting...

Lacevember came and went and my project was not completed. On a positive note, I'm so excited because I am finally going to start Chart 2 in Iracus!!! I am also very happy to report that I was one of the lucky winners of the Lacevember's last give away. This was my first KAL and it was made extra sweet since I won the very pretty Elizabeth I Scarf pattern which will come in handy since I have had single skeins of Alpaca Cloud in Horizon and Tide Pool plus Shimmer in Turquoise Splender and Happy Dance sitting in my stash for close to a year now without a project in mind.

Since Icarus was the only WIP on the needles and I was beginning to get a tad bored, I CO the following scarf using a sample cashmere skein ColourMart sent me a couple of months ago. The lace pattern is Little Shells from Alison Jenkins The Knitting Directory.

My goal for the month is to knit and contribute to Red Scarf Project 2007. I will probably select something from ScarfStyle since another goal of mine is to knit as many projects from that book as possible. I took advantage of Joann's sale on Wool-Ease and bought three skeins in Cranberry. I figured I'd buy an easy care yarn since college students have more important things to do with their time than wash something by hand and wait for it to dry naturally. The key here is convenience.