a week of FOs

I've been finishing a lot of my knitting these past few days. Surprisingly.
After finishing the scrunchable scarf last week I picked up the odessa I had CO for a week or so ago. Hats go super fast and I finished it. Unfortunately, like my first odessa, it's STILL too small for me. =(


^{my perfect odessa!}

I have a big head. x_X It has always been relatively large for my body. My cousin who used to babysit us when we were younger used to tell people who teased me that it was because I was very smart and had a big brain. =) I think, for the most part, I've grown into my head, but, when a hat says "one size fits all" it's usually wrong. For this green odessa I actually cast on an extra 10 stitches. Maybe, if I decide to knit it again, I'll add another 10... maybe even 20.



^{i love the greeeeen.}

After finishing Odessa I began extra work on My So Called Scarf. I finished off the rest of the first skein and from there it was a breeze. I wasn't so sure about the colors when I first started knitting. Kevin said they looked like "old lady colors" but, I'm pretty fond of them. I'd definitely like to do it in a lighter colorway, but, I'm quite happy with how it turned out.
Binding off was a bit difficult. I tried a few different combinations because a simple k1, pass previous stitch over bind off made the edge flare out. I ended up doing a k2, pass previous stitch over and it really kept the scarf straight.


^blue!

I think I want to block it. I'm not really sure exactly how to go about doing it though. It's a pretty long scarf and I've never really blocked anything before... but, we'll see.
The wool I used (Manos Del Uruguay) is surprisingly itchy. I've heard washing can soften everything, but, I'm not sure how to go about washing it either. My last washed object (scrunchable scarf) completely deflated and became flat--I would NOT want that to happen with this scarf.


^MSCS!

My cousin IM'd me the other day telling me that she read my blog and really liked my knitting. So, I offered to knit her something and she chose a hat. Specifically, a hat with ear flaps and a pom pom on the top.
A month or so ago I was looking at my little nephew's winter hat. It was a hat with ear flaps and a pom pom. The ear flaps were ribbed and the ribbing continued around for about 2 inches into the main body of the hat. I really liked the look of it so, unable to find a pattern, I altered a basic hat pattern and added ribbing.
I decided it would be best to do a prototype first, so I grabbed a skein of Malabrigo: Autumn Forest and knitted up my hat.


^{my own pattern!}

I feel like it needs a lot of changes. To start off, it's really thin. I think I'll have to double strand the one I make for her.
Second, despite all my calculations for the ribbing, it actually just disappears into the hat. I think I need to incorporate a color change.
I thought the earflaps looked small as I was knitting them, so, I kept adding more rows... after trying it on the earflaps were on my shoulders. x_X Those will definitely be altered.
I didn't make a pom-pom for this prototype, but, I'm assuming it should be relatively easy.
I also wanted to attach i-cord to the earflaps so they could be tied, but, I couldn't figure out how to do it. x_X We'll have to make another attempt soon.
The coolest thing about the hat though, is that I wrote out the pattern and knit it all in one night! Knitting stockinette in the round is awesome and superfast. =)

Knit hard!

smoooth

i wish i could knit faster. i have so much yarn and so many patterns i want to try out, but, i knit too slow. the scrunchable scarf has been a WIP for more than a week now.
i think i need to dedicated time solely to knitting. for some reason i can't just sit and knit... i have to be watching TV or a movie, or maybe reading, or at the very least drinking coffee. hmm. we'll sort this out so i can move on to more projects.


^{scrunchable! almost done.}


my current largest project is My So Called Scarf. i originally bought two skeins of Manos Del Uruguay colorway 118: mulled wine. it was my first encounter with manos at a yarn store and they didn't have a large selection.
when i got home i realized that the two skeins were distinctly different. same colorway but, one was more saturated and the other was lighter and less saturated. so, i figured i'd need to knit from both and alternate skeins every other row.
i ended up pulling the "swapping side" too tight and my scarf started curving and puckering. so, i quit. it wasn't really a color that i would wear... and My So Called Scarf is REALLY hard to frog for some reason. i decided i would get 2 new balls of manos in another colorway.


^{manos, oh, manos}

i visited a new yarn store recently and found a HUGE selection of the varigated manos. i took my time and found 3 colorways i really liked. and then i spent another good 10 minutes comparing skeins to see which colorway had 2 almost identical skeins. i ended up with #110: stellar.
since they were so similar i figured i could knit from one and then attach the second at the end. it's been going pretty good so far, but, just to be safe, i've decided to start knitting from both (the first ball is about half way done).


^stellar!

i've had major difficulties with MSCS. i've probably frogged stellar 4 times already. the edges always turn out wonky for me, nothing smooth and straight. i tried altering the pattern for a selvage edge. basically i added one stitch to each side so i could always slip the first stitch and knit the last. that actually stood out a lot from the pattern so i frogged that. i wanted something that wouldn't be too noticable.

what i FINALLY ended with was slipping the first and last stitch of the knit row. it's working out really well.

i bought stitchionary volume one the other day. i love it. i've been testing out different patterns on my amber gold malabrigo. it's definitly going to be a scarf, but, i havn't really settled on a pattern just yet. i'll keep testing though!
here's the malabrigo in its current condition: a slip stitch pattern (strangely the slip stitch pattern wasn't from stitchionary).


^{i love gold}

so, that's what things are looking like for me right now. i think i'll be able to finish the scrunchable scarf by tonight and i've casted on for another odessa but i promised myself i wouldn't work on it until i finished a project.