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!