A blanket!

I'm going to a gift exchange tomorrow. It's like a White Elephant exchange, but everyone brings "something good" and leaves with "something good." I know that a good portion of those in attendance will enjoy knitted things, so here's my contribution:



A blanket! No, I'm not that fast of a knitter, this was actually very quick. Some specs:
Needles: Size 50 (that's 25mm, bitches)
Yarn: 6 balls of Lion Brand Homespun (three red, three black), knitted with four strands held at once
Pattern: Six Hour Throw by Lion Brand, but really, it's just stockinette stitch...

In other news, it's Spring Break. I'm not doing anything exciting, but damn, I'm excited to have some quality knitting time!

A new hat!

I'm kind of sick of all the blankets I've been working on. Hell, I even started a third I have to have finished in a week. Yes, I'm absolutely nuts, but I think a big-needles fluffy-ass afghan would be a great thing for a gift exchange this time of year. If I don't make it to the gift exchange, I keep it. Win-win, right?

Anyway, Steve and I made some roadtripping today to visit friends, and take an impromptu visit to a music shop. I wasn't about to take a giant afghan with me for car knitting, so in a mere couple of hours, I churned this out:




A hipster hat! I'm not sure if I can wear this in public without feeling like a dork. But it was a fun knit, and the brim was something I've never done before.

Some specs:
Pattern: Headline News hat from Stitch 'n' Bitch: Nation
Yarn: Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed (EXACTLY one skein... what do I do with that second I thought I needed?)
Needles: Size 8 for brim and ribbing, 9 for the body of the hat.
Mods: Just one - the needle size for the body of the hat is smaller than what's called for, but I kind of wanted to avoid having this sucker be huge, which seems to be an issue lots of people have had.

So about that road trip... Steve has been dragging me to all of the area music stores, as he figures since he has beaten expert guitar on Guitar Hero and Rock Band, it's about time he got himself an actual guitar that doesn't suck. We were in Ann Arbor, and a friend recommended a music store there for reasonably-priced instruments. Sure enough, he came home with a new guitar that's miles ahead of his old one:




The one in the background is his five-string bass. He's had that a while, and it's a nice instrument. Personally, I think the new black beast looks kind of like a bat or something, but he swears he got it because it was comfortable to play...

It's cold outside

It's been so cold, that 26 degrees Fahrenheit seems balmy today. The worst temperature I witnessed was -1 Fahrenheit.

Naturally, I've been hard at work on blankets I likely won't finish before spring. First up is a very old WIP, and more garter stitch than I ever thought I could do while remaining calm:



This is out of lion brand Homespun. Love it or hate it, you have to admit that it's amazingly soft. The photo shows four of seven strips sewn up. Strip number five is on the needles. I ran into some problems with the dye lots of the black/white yarn; naturally the same dye lot varied dramatically, but luckily it wasn't anything a trip to Joann for some exchanging action couldn't fix. It was a close call, however.

Next up is my first major crochet undertaking:



A Babette Blanket! Rather than 13 colors of sock yarn, I opted for six worsted colors of Knitpicks Swish Superwash (Black, coast grey, fired brick, bordeaux, dark navy, and jade) which is an awesome yarn! Washable soft wool for cheap... I must say I was pleasantly surprised; I thought it was going to be a little rougher like Wool of the Andes, but it's just not the case. It's a million times softer!

FO - Jitterbug Cowl

I wanted something out of yarn from Threadbear to take to their movie night. A break from the homespun afghan of doom sounded pretty good too! I had major inspiration from Vierge en trop, considering I, well, had the same yarn stashed and I had gotten it and Threadbear and, yeah... perfect.



Pattern: MintyFresh's Bainbridge
Yarn: One hank of Colinette Jitterbug, held double
Size 5 needles
Mods: Ties omitted. I can close the sucker up with the many gorgeous antique brooches I've been collecting from antique shops...

A few words about the Jitterbug. I'd heard horror stories about this yarn, which is why I hadn't turned it into socks already. True to form, my hank was underweight and had two knots in it. Although, I did luck out, because the yarn appears to be ALL the same dye lot, unlike some of the stories I've heard on Ravelry about having different dye lots knotted together in the same hank. Nonetheless, the color is amazing, and it feels squishy and soft and warm. I fear it may fade, and when I mentioned this to Rob at Threadbear, he informed me that wool washes that contain eucalyptus may be the culprit for hand painted yarns fading, including jitterbug. I'm a eucalan devotee, so I guess I'll go the cheap shampoo route when washing this.