December's fury: outcome

I managed to finish the sweaters for my nephews, with a few days to spare. I did a skull pattern on the second one, since allegedly my nephew likes pirates. I don't think either nephew was all that enthused about getting sweaters, though. They don't make noise, or use batteries. I think my sister liked them at the very least.

The only problem I had with the pattern was the last bit: the collar. She has you go down to an odd # of stitches, which wouldn't work with a 1x1 rib. I also bound off super loosely, and it was too small! I know a lot of other people did that without problems. Maybe my idea of loose is different than everyone else. And maybe my nephews have giant heads. If I do this again, I'll skip a few of the decreases and have a bigger neck hole.

I ended up forgoing knitting socks for my neices. I didn't have enough time to make three pairs before Christmas. Instead, I screenprinted some fabric and made them totebags. I was up until 5:30 am the day of Christmas sewing those damned things. And of course, I forgot to photograph them. Oh well.

Right now I'm working on an entrelac scarf using noro silk garden. I am not sure how I feel about this yarn. It seems very popular, but it's odd. The color is lovely. The texture is weird. I thought it would be softer. The yarn also varies from thin-as-dental-floss to knitting-with-cotton-balls. And the color changes seem to be slightly different in each skein, even though they are the same color number and lot. It does work amazingly well with entrelac, so I'm glad I am using it. I don't think I'd use it for a sweater or something, though.

I can't believe I was ever intimidated by this pattern. It's super easy, and I've got it memorized, so I just knit on the subway or in front of the TV without having to pay much attention at all.

I do think I'll need to block it when I'm done. It's looking a bit lumpy along the edges. Overall, though, I like the stiffness of this yarn for the pattern. It's much crisper looking than my previous attempt, using Wool-Ease left over from those two Drive-Thru sweaters.

I am flying out to Hawaii for a vacation (thank the gods), and I am finding myself in need of a small pattern to do on the plane. I've got about 11-13 hours of travel time in each direction, so I'd really like something small that I can do to not go stir-crazy. I"m thinking I can finally restart those Endpaper mitts, or maybe do some socks. I haven't had any problem bringing knitting on a plane so far, and I hope it stays that way. Smaller needles seem perhaps less threatening, no? Though I did bring aluminum size 8 straight & DP needles on an international flight last year... Maybe I'm just too cute to be threatening. Hah. hahahah. ha.

I'm really coveting the Knitpicks Harmony interchangeable knitting needle set. I have a full set of bamboo circulars, but I find myself hating them. Just about every needle I've had under a size 2 or 3 has snapped in half. They aren't very slick, and the points are short & stubby. But thankfully they were cheap. I much prefer pointy & sharp needles. I like the slickness of metal, but often they are too slippery, so these wood ones seem like a good alternative. They've gotten pretty nice reviews from what I've seen. And they're just so pretty. The smallest they have for the interchangeable ones is a 4, but truth be told, I'm pretty skeptical about using anything other than metal for 0-3 needles anyhow.