Big yarn

A couple of weeks ago, I received a phone call from ex-roommate Phil (this is Phil of the cats fame)he needed my help with some knitwear design and I agreed because I had nothing else going on at the time and because I like money and wanted to feel less guilty about ordering that Knitpicks Options set. He sent me a blurry scanned photo of some dude from the 20's and said "I like the stitch pattern in this sweater, can you figure it out, and can you figure it out in sock yarn, and can you figure it out in a week?" Because I had limited time and all the yarn stores were closed on the day I needed to get the yarn (Monday), so I had to use what ever I could find at Mary Maxim. This is why I used Paton's Kroy. This is the only reason. So the thing.... well I tried knitting for a while and it wasn't working, so I charted out what I thought the design was on excel and sent it to Phil. He then made modifications to the chart and sent it back and it was good to go. So I did some marathon knitting and finished the thing. I can't post any pictures of the thing until the line is released, but I can tell you that it was a fair isle thing, out of sock yarn, on tiny needles. It took a really long time and it made my hands hurt, however it looked good and Phil was ecstatic when I handed it over. After our meeting, I took my moneys and went straight to Romni where I bought the biggest, bulkiest yarn I could find. Then I came home and knit a scarf on 10mm needles.

yarn cat.

She-ra has good taste. This is the Romni brand yarn. I have been wanting to try it out for a while, and in general it is nice to work with. It does however have a tendency to get really fuzzy. I imagine it would felt really well. I bought two hanks of the "thick and thin" stuff even though I was worried that the texture was dangerous close to novelty. But is yarn really "novelty" if it's grey? I think not.

I had originally planned to knit a plain garter stitch scarf, as I have never done this before. However, the texture was a bit too varied for my liking.



Here is the scarf. I decided to do a drop stitch to show off the thick and thin-ness of the yarn. I like the scarf. Although it doesn't look that kicky in the photo, it is very stylish in real life. The texture reminds me of those lambswool coats that were so popular back in the day. What day? I dunno, the '30s maybe?

I also decided to learn me something new, and test out my shiny new Knitpicks Options set and did some matching grey mittens on 2 circs. One pair of Addis and one pair of Options and I have to say, I do like those Options. They are pointier than the Addis and the cord is a bit supple-r. Like many others who have these needles, I found that the cords were coming loose as I was knitting but after some "extensive research", I learned that the "key" that comes with the set is for leverage as opposed to functioning like an actual key and this had made a world of diffrence.

EDIT: and speaking of the cords coming loose, one of the purple cords popped out of the metal casing on the 24" cables. Jacquie suggested I call Knitpicks about it. I kept putting it off because I was scared that they would be all like "you are Canadian, so no replacement cord for you. Put that in your poutine and smoke it". However, I finally sucked it up and called them today, and I have to say their customer service is superb.

But back to the mittens




These are the first mittens I've knit (I've made some in the past with the power of crochet) and they are a bit ass-y. Partially because of the pattern I used... and partially because I have freakishly long thumbs. I finally decided to unravel the thumbs and make them longer and the mittens fit fine now. I am determined to use my Options for everything (they make great toothpicks btw) so I have also learned me the magic loop, which is just like knitting with 2 circs only different. Also I am a bad person who has ordered additional needles and cables for the set. That's it though. I am cut off. No more Knitpicks for this Knitta. In other news, the Pinky the vintage hoody is languishing. All the pieces are finished and blocked but now I must sew them together, and since each piece has a different stitch pattern, it's not as easy as I had anticipated. Well hopefully I'll figure it out before 2008. Oh and speaking of this cat, Phil has agreed that I can keep her forever. Hooray.





She really likes this yarn.