Saturday, February 13

What's new?

Lots has happened in the last month and a half.  It's a new year.  I'm back at school and classes are moving along at a very fast clip.  I've also moved, I changed dorms so I don't have to move for the summer during finals week.  It is also the Olympic Season.  As far as crafts go, I've slowed down since school started.  I finished the convertible fingerless gloves.  I added silver snaps after the fact to help hold the mitten part in place when I use them as fingerless.  I am happy with the results and glad I finished them before the cold snap hit us here in Oklahoma.  On to what's on the needles now.

I joined Yarn Harlot's Knitting Olympics.  The rules are fairly straight forward: you choose a project, cast on during or after the opening ceremonies, finish before the Olympics end.  I browsed Ravelry for a simple sock pattern, I have some nice sock yarn I wanted to put to good use.  I will be attempting to finish the Peppermintoes in the 14 days between lighting the torch and the closing ceremonies.  I started my project last night while watching the opening ceremonies.  Between last night and this morning, I've completed the first diamond and started the second.  You might not be able to tell, but I'm doing two at a time.  I really like that technique because any mistakes you make are at least the same on both socks.  I haven't done any mitered squares before, so I've been very excited to watch the square take shape.  I think I'll be using a lighter yarn for the next round of squares, but I'm going to wait to see how I feel when I get there.

Another project I've started is a scarf for one of my friends who helped me move earlier this semester.  While packing, he found a color combination in my stash and mentioned that he would love a scarf in those colors.  Of course, I couldn't resist.  What a great way to repay him for his help and help clear out my stash a bit at the same time!  I wanted to knit something simple, something I could knit during lectures or during a study break.  But I also wanted something that would look nice.  So, I browsed Ravelry and found the Double-double Scarf from Le Blog de MichelineL (yes, it's in French; no, I don't read French).  Two things I really appreciated: she posted an English version of the pattern, she included pictures of how to knit the stitch.  I really like how easy this is and how polished it looks.  It's based on a basic garter striped scarf.  Lovely.  However, it's going into a holding pattern until the end of the Olympics.