What's going on in the knitting world of Nancy

1. My current Main project is the Sunny Cables and Crowns Blanket. It's a bright yellow number from Our Best Knit Afghans (which the other three blankets I have posted have been from). I am knitting it for The Lowell Wish Project. I decided to knit it using Lion Brand's Pound of Love, as I wouldn't have to worry about adding on new skeins of yarn. This turned out to be a less than good idea as the cables don't show up very well. I'm hoping in vain that it might turn out nicer after it's been washed. Still, it feels great to be able to do cables again. I don't know what it is about adding that extra needle that makes things so much fun. Anyway, I'm trying to devote an hour or two to it a day because it's taking A LONG time to knit. Today was a bust, as certain stressful situations caused me to only concentrate on knitting for about a half hour.

2. My projects on hold are the baby hat I posted in the last entry (the pink and blue one, I'm renaming it The Cotton Candy Hat). Why is this on hold when it's practically done? See, I made a trip to NYC a little while ago and somehow in transit, I lost one of my DPNs. Now I'm going to have to purchase a whole set of new ones, which makes me grumpy.

I have also started a Log Cabin Blanket. It's not much so far, but once I finish the baby blanket, I hope to buy some new yarn for it at add on to it. I'm using Lion Brand Cotton Ease, because I like the washable aspect of the yarn. This will be the first blanket that I've knit for myself and I want the sucker to be big. As big as looks appropriate. I'm going to need something to keep me warm this winter. But I have a feeling this won't be finished any time soon. And why is that?

3. Because of my future projects. I hope to knit for a few people this Christmas (probably just my long time friends). Also, I signed up for Secret of the Stole. I know that it's probably way too complex for little me but I've been oohing and aahing over The Mystery Stole 3 for weeks now. I want to join in on the fun!

FO galore and how I learned to stop fearing DPNs (+ one UFO)

So I've been away for a while. Since my last entry I have acquired yarn for my birthday, finished knitting the fanciful rose blanket, conquered my fear of DPNs, and finally taken pictures of my Warm up Winchester hats, which I finished about a month ago.

So basically, I got quite a bit done!

My parents came up to visit for my birthday. They took me out for lunch, bought me a few books, and even took me to Michaels to buy me a couple skeins of caron simply soft yarn so I could finish Fanciful Rose. Once I got the yarn I went into a knitting frenzy. As I hadn't done any real knitting for days, it felt so good to finally be working with yarn and needles again. The Fanciful Rose Blanket, much to the surprise of my boyfriend, was finished up in mere days. I really like the blanket. You can't really really tell from his angle, but it's much more square than the seashells blanket. It was knit using Caron simply soft and will be donated to the Lowell Wish project. Hopefully, I'll be dropping it off at my parents' house this weekend. I'm going to New York City for a weekend, so I will be passing by the area. I hope that I'll have the time to stop by, if just for a minute, but I may have to end up mailing this.

Once I finished the blankets I saw that I had plenty of leftover pink yarn. I decided that I would like to try to knit a baby hat. Not only that, but I wanted to conquer my fear of DPNs. You see, a while ago I tried to knit a pair of socks with these tiny DPNs, using a yarn that looked a hell of a lot prettier in the skein. I found the experience to be a little frustrating, especially because it was my first experience with socks, and doing techniques like picking up stitches. The first sock was finished but the second one was never started because I kept on getting frustrated with the needles. So with the baby hats, I picked up four size seven DPNs that I had lying around and cast on 72 stitches. The experience, although tricky at first, was a lot more fulfilling. In fact, I now really enjoy the DPNs. I don't know if it's because they're larger needles, or because I'm using four instead of five, or that a baby hat is a much less complicated knit than a sock, but I'm happy I made it. I even unraveled the beginnings of a blue blanket I had started (and was seriously dissatisfied with the pattern) so I could make a blue hat. Now I'm working on a third baby hat and using fair isle knitting for the first time. Granted, it's very simple fair isle knitting but hey! Color work!


These hats will probably be added to my mom's baby baskets for the Lowell Wish Project. I figure if she doesn't have any room for them, I can always find another charity that might want them.

Something else that I got accomplished in is I finally took time to take pictures of the two hats I knit for WarmupWinc. These aren't as nice, as they are knit on straight needles, but I really like the color. They're knit in Lion Brand Wool ease and fit me fine, so I guess they'll fit most women. I hope mod and WarmupWinc finds them to be good enough! Sorry about the shitty pictures. Believe it or not, this is the best shot I can get.

At the moment, I have some more left over pink yarn to make more baby hats. Beyond that, I'm going to have to wait until I get my first paycheck. Another thing I got accomplished recently is I finally got a job. It was supposed to start on August 13th, but the training got pushed back a week. Looks like I'm going to have a little while before I can buy yarn!

Strangely enough, I'm thinking about working on Christmas projects already!