Looking good!

I just finished the main part of the hood. I am so glad I went with extra stitches. After frogging the 17 stitch hood, I went overboard and added 30 stitches. I knitted about 3 or 4 rows and realised that might have been a few too many. I frogged again and cast on 25 stitches. That created a perfect sized hood for my "needs" (read: "apparently huge head)".


I suppose I should have chosen a neater seaming stitch, such as Kitchener stitch, for sewing the back seam, something I will keep in mind if I make another one, which is likely. The pattern only says to "sew back seam", so I did just that. So far, I like it.

My best guess as to why I had to add extra stitches even though the gauge was correct, is that the use of two threads altered the stretch in the knitting. It feels quite stiff, compared to a single thread piece. I'm very happy with how it's shaping up, though.

New Yarn Shop

Oh, and the new yarn shop is cute. It's tiny, they don't have much, but I still walked away with a new yarn cutter (snipper thingy, like miniature sheep shears, can never have enough), a sewing/knitting gauge, which is a tiny ruler with a gap running down the length for counting stitches and a slider to mark off the area you're measuring, and a pom-pom maker. I have my eye on some wool, that I'm going to knit into a baker boy cap...next week...I love winter!

Not going well.

Hmm. Cast on 17 stitches. Done. Knit every row. Done, except I'm only halfway to the final length and I just don't see this working. I know my head. There is no way that narrow little flap will cover more than half of it, no matter how I fold it. I'm going to frog it and start with more stitches. The worst that could happen is I'm going to have a roomier hood. I can handle that. If it turns out to be worse than this thin little strip, I'll frog that too.

*puzzled* But the gauge is correct! Whaaaa!

At least this is mindless enough that I can watch tv at the same time. I was watching a fascinating program about insects, they showed bees killing a wasp (I think) scout by piling on top of it and vibrating to generate heat. The wasp can't handle as much heat as bees can, so they almost kill themselves in order to save the nest. It's AMAZING! Ok, off to frog...

Interim Project

I've decided to knit the coat from the previous post, but first I'm going to knit this braided hood from Lionbrand's free patterns. I purchased the materials today and will be casting on tomorrow.
It should be quick, unless the cats have a say in it! The braids can be tied underneath your chin for extra warmth. I think it's the cutest thing. I'll be using this yarn:


It's not the super chunky yarn they recommend, so I might be using two strands to make up for that. I'll see how it goes.

Before I can start knitting, however, a new temptation has reared its ugly head. I was at a nearby shopping center earlier this evening, and I saw a new shop that is opening tomorrow. A new yarn shop. I'll be paying them a visit in a couple of hours. I hope they have only ugly yarns and ridiculously high prices...the shop is located only one suburb away from me - if they have anything pretty, I'm going to be broke in no time.

Now it's too cold!

This week I finally returned to the wonderful hobby that summer so rudely interrupted. Now it's cold and all I can think about is warm, soft, lovely wool. I decided to get back into the hobby by returning to the wonderful KnittingHelp site, where I've been going into the KnitChat application, under the nickname Prazzie. I've already made a new friend on Ravelry - jedwards - who incidentally has knitted a fan! He spotted my earlier post and told me that yes, you can knit one :)

It's far too cold for me to think of fans now, however. It's time for hats, scarves, coats and blankets. Here is a gorgeous throw that caught my eye:


As lovely as that is, a friend showed me a pattern for this jacket in a magazine tonight:


I went out to buy the magazine right after I left her, because that's so pretty. I love the colour.

I'll decide what to make next, probably this coat, but maybe a hat, I'll see which yarn calls out to me the loudest. Now I'm going to while away some time on Ravelry, while my new Soot Sprite looks on from atop the monitor.