Lots of knitting, very little posting

So, since the last time I posted, I finished knitting my version of the Booga Bag. The differences from the "real" pattern? I'm not using the beautiful handpainted Noro Kureyon, but two shades of (surprise!) blue, which I've arranged in stripes from being mostly dark to mostly light. The i-cord for the handles was a challenge. The pattern says to make at least 5-6 feet, but I want significantly longer straps, so I now have... 12 feet of i-cord to felt to make the straps. Crazy, eh? I haven't actually felted it yet (due to not being at my apartment for long enough when the laundry room was open), but hopefully I'll be able to do it soon, and then I'll post some pictures.

I also went shopping with my brother for yarn for his requested Manly Sweater from Stitch 'n Bitch. We picked the Patons Classic Wool (same as I used for the Booga Bag, actually) in exciting grey, white and... BLUE! Mostly grey and blue with a bit of white. We got the yarn last Saturday, and less than a week later I'm more than halfway done the back. I'm not sure if I'm going to post photos of this though, since it is meant to be his Christmas present (see how I'm ahead of the game here? Totally on the ball...). Incidentally, I think I'm in love with this wool. It's a teeny bit scratchy, but it totally doesn't make my wrists hurt, plus, I have some awesome new straight bamboo needles for this project, and I'm loving them! Maybe I can make Rogue with this wool...


I felt so knitterly when I took my Branching Out with me on the subway yesterday. It's so light and portable - what could be better? And then on my way home, I saw it. A big honkin' mistake. I'm pretty sure I missed out a whole pattern row (not in the subway knitting, it's way too long ago for that). I think it's about 1 1/2 pattern repeats ahead of where I am now. Knowing me, I have to fix it. There is no way around it. Type-A knitter that I am, it has to be fixed. Plus, if I didn't fix it, when I work the scarf I would be forever pointing out the mistake to people rather than hiding it like a normal person. There is something about the idea of tinking back 15 rows that makes me want to poke my eyes out with DPNs. How do I figure out what row I was on anyways? Do I just rip it back the whole way and pick up the stitches, or do I slowly, slowly, slowly tink my way back? I'm for sure not going to be doing this for a while, since it will demand full concentration. Rats!

Anyhow, I'd better get back to work. I'm going out tonight with my friend Mary, who just finished her degree (yay!) and my friend Justine, who just finished her exams for the HR program she's taking. I'm quite excited, and right now I have the attention span of a 2-year old. Not an asset when trying to work on a computer. Only half an hour til the weekend!

In which our intrepid knitter learns to cable.

So this weekend I taught myself how to make cables. Not difficult, you say? Perhaps not, but when you don't read any special instructions, it's a bit complicated. I had a stitch pattern to go from, and it just said to put the stitches on the cable needle, put it at the back, knit 3 more stitches, and then knit the 3 off the cable needle. Of course, nowhere did it mention to knit the 3 stitches off the *other end* of the cable needle. I'm not quite sure why I thought it was pointy at both ends but... Anyhow, it doesn't work very well to knit of the same side as you put the stitches onto.

The good news is that it only took me 1 try to figure this out. Then I made two more successful cables one way and another one the other way (the earlier cables are at the bottom of the picture).


In other news, I'm trying to sew (I typed "make" before and then I realized some might think I was knitting these things, which I'm totally not - who knits outfits for summer wedding?) a skirt and top to wear to the various weddings I'm attending this summer. The first attempt at the skirt was thoroughly unsuccessful, but we got a new pattern last week and this weekend I got part way through making a new skirt. So now the exciting deadline is whether or not I will finish the outfit in time to wear it to the first wedding I have to attend, which is on April 23rd. Only 12 days left!