Defeat

Well, I have finally admitted to myself, NaKniSweMo is not going to happen for me. Except for the completely impulsive lone Marigold sock, I have a bit of knitting blah right now, and just haven't been knitting much the past few weeks. I don't know why at all, you would think now that winter is upon us, I would want to knit sweaters, other warm things. But I guess more than anything, I've just been feeling lazy, maybe because I am spending too much time at home with Chief:

My cat, Chief. Very lazy.

Even yesterday, I said to myself, there is still time for Marseilles (my November sweater) (!!!It only took me 3 hours to knit the first cable repeat!) Marseilles is going to be a project. I found it requires A LOT of concentration, frequent use of the crochet hook for fixing mistakes, and I guess I am just slowing down as winter comes on (less sunlight, less time outside=overall less activity) so this isn't the right project for me right now. Its funny, I picked that pattern because I wanted a challenge, but the challenging part of it was what kept me from picking it up. Its going to sit in the basket for a while now, maybe I will do a repeat here and there, but now I really want to crack into my latest Rowan ... lots of bulky yarn projects!! (Right now I am between (warning, Ravelry links): Petersburg, Iceland, and the Alpine Shrug - any opinions out there?)

Procrastination

I have a pitiful start on my Nokniswemo, (Marseilles, if you are curious here it is on my Flickr). Why? I really don't know why I decided to cast on for another pair of socks.

I became involved with these:

Marigold Socks by Pamela Wynne

This is a really fun pattern to knit, part of why it wasn't painful to rip back 3 times! First, I tried to reincarnate my Chevron Scarf, but switching colors every 8th row (the pattern repeat) didn't look right. Then, I tried repeating the colors every other row, but I didn't like this either. Then I tried with a more colorful Koigu (here), but it just looked a little crazy with all of those colors and the ridges of the purl rows in the pattern. So, I re-cast on with the current yarn (Koigu KPPM color P812) and finally I am happy (very happy - these are great socks, I highly recommend impulsively casting on like I did).

Have a nice weekend - I can't believe Thanksgiving is next week already! (It is a week early this year I guess)

November is for sweaters

NaKniSweMo - How fun! And I needed an excuse to cast on for this: Marseilles! OK, I said it, I'm committed now, it has to be done by the end of this month! All of a sudden this seems like a big task for one month. This pattern jumped out at me the first time I flipped through the magazine - early in my knitting adventures. I loved it, but didn't think there was any chance that I could knit it. That was over a year ago, isn't it nice to see yourself getting better at something? There are beautiful FOs on Ravelry. I am so excited to cast on.
I am using Patons Classic Merino in "bright red." It really is, I hope not too much so. I had originally bought it awhile ago for Cheesylove which has fallen out of favor with me, I don't know why.

Speaking of stash ... look what I made from leftovers from my Foilage and Koolhaas hats:

Fetching from Knitty, Summer 2006 in Malabrigro Frosted Grapes and ?Blue Worsted.
I had a hard time getting good pictures of these, and I'm still not happy with the pics. I love these colors together. Maybe the stripes take away from the cables a bit, but in person its not as bad as in the pictures. And so soft. Its a really cute pattern too that can be knit quickly. I didn't make any modifications to the pattern, just alternating colors every other row. I really like these.

I'd better start working on my sweater!

Mmmmm.....Grapes

I couldn't resist....


Koolhaas Hat by Jared Flood in Interweave Knits Holiday 2007
Less than one skein of Malabrigo Worsted Frosted Grapes
US 6 (ribbing) and 8 needles

I've never been a part of Fiberlicious before, but I just had to become a member after knitting this. The yarn is so beautiful - the colors really are that of frosted grapes, don't you think? I was a little worried that this was going to pool, or take away from the pattern but I think that it works. Great pattern too. Of course, cabled without a cable needle. (I hated cabling before learning how to do this). I have about 1/3 of a skein left, and I also have about the same left over from my Foilage Hat - This hat is a present for my mom and I was thinking of making some coordinating mitts with the two, maybe these? I'm not sure if I have enough yarn. I could definitely make some fingerless-type mitts.

I also got the new Interweave Knits in the mail ... I'm not so sure about this one. The models are kindof freaking me out a bit ... I was reading the Interweave forum at Ravelry and I guess I am not the only one. There are a few projects that I like, but there aren't as many in previous magazines, I feel like the style of the patterns is much different in this issue. Or maybe I have just really liked the previous magazines (thats definitely true), so this is just a relative let down. Also doesn't look like there is a November Magknits, is there any pattern of which months will have one? I always look forward to checking for one at the beginning of each month.

Happy November!