Yay!

Ok, so "it" really, really is done and looks good and has started its journey with all the other goodies to Michigan. I'm now on pins and needles waiting to see if I did good or not. I've had a lot of fun with the Hogwart's swap, but I'm ready for a break from swaps for a little bit.

Meantime, I gifted my remaining lovely blue variegated bamboo to someone wishing to try out some bamboo which leaves me much relieved because I no longer need to figure out what to do with it! Yay! I SO love the RAK group on Ravelry!

And while I haven't had much time to devote to the dh birthday socks, I have been plugging along at them here and there and I took a new picture just to remind myself how much further along I am that I used to be.


Before


Currently

Speaking too soon...

::sigh::

Ok, I got a little ahead of myself with the "hat is finished" happy dance. After doing a little blocking I realized its WAY too big. Back to the drawing board... Ok, the knitting needles, but you get the picture! Well, maybe you don't.

Picture if you will... The exuberance turning to despair, the sulking for days until ready to pull myself up by the bootstraps, I start taking the hat back apart. At least I've got the join already done! :) I'm basically knitting off of the other one as I am nearing the end of my patience with this project and if I have to do anything else with it besides just finish it, I may cry and that would be bad.

I'm nearly halfway through, which is good! Also, I can mail my package out after I'm finished with it and I have my coachella/fusion concoction to finish, which I'm very much looking forward to... so yay me (in a few days anyway)! Meantime, back to knitting...

Perhaps there ought to be a Ravatar that says "I knit so I do not pull my hair out".

::sigh::

Its done, its done, its done!

Yay! Happy dance time! Here's a preview, cuz I'm a horrible tease! LOL

Hmmm....

I was hoping to be able to say that I'm all done with a certain hat, but unfortunately not quite. Just 5 more rows or so to go. I'm ridiculously excited about that despite the fact that I still have a few odds and ends to put together to finish up my HLBOES spoilee's package. Probably due to the issues I had with getting started with it. I've learned a very important lesson about checking gauge, though I doubt that it will stop me from launching headlong into other projects without checking in the future. LOL


Actually here's the very first (and only) project I've ever done a swatch for! Only because I needed to try to match gauge with 4 other knitters. Yikes! Hope it all comes together well! I've affectionately dubbed it the BDT, cuz ain't it just? ;)

Spice Girls moment

In the interest of getting all my HLBOES points for my blog this week I was briefly thinking of doing a Spice Girls thing and just saying, "HLBOES, blah, blah, blah, Go Ravenclaw! Blah, blah, blah, wizard power!" But that would just be silly!


So, instead I thought I'd mention that inspired by the assignment to finish a project, I've been working on finishing other projects. I finally finished the socks for the wee ones. I do have to confess I did it much faster than I thought I would due to the fact that somehow the skein of yarn I was using was missing the last 4 colors of the repeat so I couldn't do the other sock of the 3rd pair. Lucky me, I guess.

Also, I decided to give dh a pair of socks for his birthday (maybe a couple pairs depending on how long they take). Mostly I did that so that I HAD to finally a) learn magic loop b) learn two at a time socks c) learn how to do toe-up socks and finally d) do something with the 3 pairs worth of black sock yarn that I've had for at least 6 months now.

I restarted a certain hat due to gauge issues. I think it may have something to do with the kinda slippery properties of the yarn, but who knows for sure. I'm nearing the halfway point on it though so I suppose I ought to try to finish putting everything else together for a certain ::coughcoughHLBOEcoughcough:: swap box. I do have a few things already just trying to figure out where to stop myself, I've got so many ideas.

HLBOES hat

Started: 2/7/09

Since I can't hide the project on Rav from my spoilee, I'm going to blog about it on here to be published after she gets it. I'm doing the Hermione Cable and Eyelet hat from the Half Blood Prince. I'm using Paton's Silk Bamboo and sz 5 needles. I'm casting on the extra 22 stitches so that hopefully it will compensate for the fact that I'm using lighter weight yarn. I'll keep you updated.

2/28/09 - Finished the hat today! Had to frog it just after I finished the ribbing the first time due to gauge issues. I restarted on sz 2 needles with the extra 22 stitches again. It seems a little big around, but the length seems to be good thankfully without any extra repeats beyond the ones in the pattern.

3/12/09 - So after doing a little blocking and realizing the hat was enormous, I ended up re-knitting it straight off the old one. No extra stitches this time, still knitting it on size 2 needles. Interestingly due to some goofs I did on the repeats, I ended up using more yarn than I did the first time. But it is really, really done for real this time! The combination of yarn substitution and pattern totally threw me for a loop.