I'm back?

Well, there you have it. Murphy's Law in action. I said that I would update regularly - every week! - and then I don't update for months. Of course.

So, I'm not going through my entire list of finished and started projects that occurred during the interim - that would be crazy. So, if you really want to know and you're on Ravelry, check out my Ravelry page - my username is Candytuft.

I decided to post because as my best friends and I recorded another episode of our podcast (that was neglected for a long time, too), Sierra said that she had a blog. I'm not going to link to it because she uses pseudonym's for everyone and I don't, and I want to protect hers and our friends' identities.

Anywho, I'll try to be better about posting, but I won't promise or anything, otherwise we'll just get a repeat of last time. And speaking of repeats.....

I designed a hat!... sort of. (Did you like my segue?) I got the stitch pattern from the Harmony Guides' Cable & Arans book, while I based my stitch count off the percentages used in the Star Crossed Slouchy Beret (I still tweaked those to fit my original stitch count, though). I knit it in Cascade Sierra in a beautiful purple color that looks purply-pink in certain lights (and it is color number 30, in case anyone was wondering).

There are a few things I would change, like the initial ribbing and some decreases, but I'm very happy with it. I used the Branching Cable II, which is on page 214, but what I got did not match the picture. I'm not sure if the publishers made a boo-boo and didn't put the right picture, or if I translated the pattern into the round and a chart incorrectly. I still like my result, even if it wasn't what I planned on first.

In the picture, the hat is shown unblocked. Actually, it's still unblocked and going to stay that way. I'm afraid to put it anywhere near water because of its cotton content (Cascade Sierra is 80% pima cotton and 20% merino wool - which makes it really soft). I didn't wash my swatch - I really only swatched to get my starting stitch count - and I'm afraid that if the hat touches water it will explode and not come close to fitting my head. So it is definitely not a hat to wear in the rain, which means I'm not wearing it to school tomorrow, because there is a 90% chance of rain! Fancy that, but we're having several storms, which Southern California desperately needs, because of El Niño. This is great for our farmers, not so great for our teenagers who want to wear their newly knitted cotton berets to school to show it off. There's gotta be more than one, right?

I had today off from school because we are in between semesters and this is a teacher prep day. Finals were last week and I have all A's and A-'s in my classes, except for Calculus AP, in which I have a B (which makes me very happy, because before the final, I had a B-). Tomorrow, I start two new classes - Spanish Language AP (me: aaaahhhh!!!!) and Theory of Knowledge, often known as TOK (me: cool). TOK is a required IB class (IB stands for International Baccalaureate, which is a program/level of classes that gives me international college credit to participating colleges and is slightly harder than AP - which is why I signed up) and is kind of like philosophy as it explores what knowledge is and how we learn. Since TOK is an afternoon class (meaning it starts after the regular three periods and that most of the school leaves when I get into class) and I already have Physics H as a morning class (meaning it starts an hour before the normal three classes do), I will be in school for 8 hours every day. Fun, right?

Due to the three day weekend, I made several knitting goals (there was a reason for explaining my new schedule). I have completed one of them (finishing the hat) out of the five that I made. I'm hoping to be able to finish two more before the night ends - finish knitting the Hemlock Ring Blanket and finish weaving in the ends on the Little Green Wristlets.

My Hemlock Ring Blanket (designed by Jared Flood) is almost done - according to the little formula I figured out, I'm 83% done and I only have 9 rounds left (not including bind-off, which usually takes twice the amount of time a single round does, in my experience with circular items). The reason that 17% is equal to 9 rounds is that each round is (at this point) 440 stitches around. I still have to increase that to 472 before the end. However, I do love this pattern, I'm loving the way it looks, and it does go pretty quickly. I think a round takes a little less than 20 minutes - less than a round on one of the circular shawls I've done.

I'm making the blanket in Lion Brand Wool-Ease, which I love for blankets and afghans because it's soft and machine washable. I used the White Frost colorway for the center and the Oxford Grey colorway for the Feather and Fan stitch. What's cool about the White Frost colorway is that it is particularly fuzzy, which I love for this.

My Little Green Wristlets (designed by Therese Chynoweth) are made of Malabrigo - the same color I made my Moebius (I'm not sure if I spelled that correctly and I don't feel like checking right now) scarf and my Star Crossed Slouchy Beret it - so now I'll have a matching set. You know the crazy thing, though? Out of the two balls I used to make all three projects, I still have yarn left! I could probably make another glove, and start on a second one before I'd run out.

Well, my readers, real and imaginary (the latter of which is probably more populous than the former), I'm ending this long catch up post to hopefully accomplish my goals. I hope to talk to you again soon.

Love,

Sami

P.S. I started a sweater for myself, and I can't wait for be able to work on it more (I have a little rewards system set up that involves exercising and eating well for knitting it). Hopefully I'll have it done before Ravelympics, or close to it, because my dad's sweater will be my Ravelympics project, all of which I'll hopefully talk about next time.

P.P.S. I'm going to Stitches West next month as my birthday/Christmas present from my aunt! Yay!!