Cabled Headband

This is a long post in the making.

Last month, I finished knitting the cabled headband knit with leftover Noro Tidiori. I probably should have made a test swatch but I wasn't thinking about the implications of what could happen should I not get gauge. Well...when I was finished I was three inches short of the desired length in the pattern. Since a headband is stretched over one's head, it's worked out as okay as it can. The viewer just sees more of the tangled string and less of the headband towards the back. At some point I'll hit up JoAnn's or another craft store and pick up some elastic band (in black preferably). I think I'd be more apt to wear the headband f it has an elastic backing, rather than tying string together.

On a more positive note, I finished knitting the Branching Out scarf using Crystal Palace Merino Frappe. There was a time many years ago when I had considered using this yarn to make the Spiderweb Caplet in Stitch 'N Bitch Nation. Nowadays I wonder what the hell was I thinking.

ADD

I can't seem to stick with having one project at a time. I have several projects slumbering but I guess I have a compulsion to have two projects in actual motion. I started on the second of the Queen of Beads socks (about time!) while on my stay-cation. I'm working the heel and realized that I never wrote down how rows I knit to get the length. I'm going to have to count and measure and hope I come close. My second sock doesn't always match the first so this should be interesting.

While off, I also cast-on a headband using the leftover Noro Tidiori from the Clapotis. It's the Bamboozled pattern on Ravelry. I'm 63 rows in and debating whether to do another repeat of cabling as the pattern suggests or just go straight to the decreasing. I'm afraid I don't have enough yarn. I don't quite have a full skein but I do have some scraps from where the other skeins had knots.

In addition, I made some progress on the TKGA Master Hand Knitting project. I was able to go to the library and pick up some knitting reference books, which came in handy in answering some of the 17 questions. I also stopped by a LYS and picked up some white Cascade 220 for the hat I have to knit, which will be the next thing to knit after the handband.

Clapotis - Finished!

Knitting Mags Fall 2009

Guess what arrived last week? Fall 2009 Knitting Magazines - Interweave Knits, Vogue Knitting and Cast-On Fall. My subscriptions are coming up for renewal and I think I’m going to have to break down after seeing these issues.

This issue of Interweave Knits easily rivals that of 2008. The majority of the patterns in both issues are classic in their composition. I like to think that many of them would be as wearable 10 years from now as they are today. There are few patterns in here that I would not consider making and the one’s I have in mind for the future are:

-Farmer's Market Cardigan
-Nordique Swing
-Double Knit Hat (Bird on a Wire)

















This issue of Vogue Knitting featured an article on going seamless. It offers a quick synopsis on converting flat knitted pieces to knitting in the round. It couldn't have come at a better time for me. I have a number of queued knitting projects that I've been putting off because they would require seaming. I still have a sweater from September sitting in a box waiting to be seamed. Hell, I'm not one for weaving in ends either. I always find reasons to put off the finishing require of most knitting items.

As a member of the The Knitters Guild Association, I now receive Cast-On (no subscription necessary). In the last two issues, I have realized I am not really the audience for this magazine. I might marvel at the complex knitting it takes to knit an intarsia sweater with various pattern motifs but I will never attempt to make such a garment. I honestly find them to be a bit busy and unappealing.

Mom's B-Day Present

The cable footies I mentioned last month were a birthday present for my mom. I got really bored after the first one. While the simple cable keeps a knitter engaged, it’s a little monotonous. I ended up starting on a lace scarf so as to not give up knitting as a whole. I wrapped up both projects and have even worn the scarf to work a few times (of which only one person noticed was hand knit). My mom loved the socks and though it’s too hot right now to wear them, I’m sure they’ll keep her feet nice and toasty come winter.

Lastest Shawl - Clapotis

I’ve been scouring knitty.com since 2004 and when the Clapotis pattern was released back then, I was there to view it. At the time, I made a copy and put it in my storage binder for online patterns. I had no idea years later I would come to knit it in Noro TIdiori. As I mentioned earlier, I impulsively bought four balls of this yarn on sale at a LYS but found that this was too small an amount to make anything I’d actually want to wear. So a few weeks ago I scoured the web trying desperately to find Tidiori in the colorway and dyelot (it having been discontinued). I finally came across some at The Woolie Ewe - the last bastion for Noro Tidiori.

The first skein went great. The second skein was cursed. Not only was it riddled with knots--I stopped counting at four--but it also had spots of being thread bare. Who wants that?! To say I was pissed is to put it lightly. I was enraged that a skein could be this horrible and become disheartened with the project’s ability to progress. Shawls that are 100 stitches across aren’t exactly forgiving when on stitch 40 you find that there’s not enough yarn to finish the row because you’ve just discovered it’s two strands tied together.

The remaining balls weren't as fraught with knots or bare spots so I carried along with knitting. I started almost a month ago and have wrapped up the knitting this week. All the stitches are dropped (so much fun!) so in essence it looks like a Clapotis. I still need to weave in the tails. Although I do like the end result, I would never use this yarn again were it still in circulation.