It\’s a Knitting Day!

I have an unexpected Knitting Day in the middle of the week! Woohoo!

Of course I have to stay home from work to take care of a sick boy in order to get my knitting day. But I\’ll take it.

Last night I was on fire. I cruised through about 8 inches or so on my Fur Trimmed Poncho. It\’s measuring about 13 inches. Another 4 inches and I will begin shaping for the shoulders. Then it\’ll be on to the front.

If you haven\’t noticed, I\’ve been doing tons of knitting lately. I finished three (yes, count \’em three!) projects since Friday. Mike\’s scarf is now done, as well as Cross Hat-ch and the matching My So-Called Scarf.

Here are the pictures:

This is M.\’s scarf along with the matching hat and mittens. They\’re made with Sirdar\’s Snowflake Chunky Magic in Denim Spray. For the hat and mittens I held two strands together to make them extra thick. Mike loves how soft they are, but honestly this yarn was a real pain to knit with. The fleecy-ness caused it to split. It was actually easier to knit with the two strands on the larger needles than with one strand on smaller needles. I think the smaller needles kept catching the little fleecy \”loops\”.

I love the way stitch pattern looks that was used to create the Cross Hat-ch and My So Called Scarf. I found the scarf easier to knit because in altering the pattern to make the hat in the round, you had to do this slightly awkward (for me at least) knit the second stitch but don\’t drop from the needle and then k2tog. (For the scarf it was p2tog, don\’t drop, then purl the first stitch.) For me, I could just never get into the groove with that part of the pattern. Maybe it was the yarn, my tension or something else.

I would do two things differently next time: 1. For the scarf:Since I used Lion Brand Landscapes I should have cast on 20 stitches instead of 30. I really thought I wanted a wider scarf. But as it neared the finish and I began wrapping it around my neck, I discovered it was definitely too wide. I didn\’t feel like ripping the entire thing out at that point, so I\’m just going to live with it. 2. For the hat: For my head it is too tall. The circumference is fine, but then it comes down way too far, even for a cloche-style hat. I would knit one less inch before beginning the decreases for the crown. The bottom also really rolls. I am going to need to do some serious blocking.