knitting night

Last night was knitting night. I missed three weeks in a row between working on the taxes, working on the scholarship application, and I don't remember what, so I was really excited to go and see my knitting buddies. They're really a fun group. I had an incredible headache when I left work, but I decided to go anyway. Also, I felt weird going when I don't have a current knitting project or even a baby blanket going right now. (The hat just needs the last few stitches bound off at the top and a seam.)




I still can't quite decide whether I like the knit side or the purl side better. If I make it again, I think I'm going to make the whole thing rib instead of just the bottom inch or two--the ribbing is actually my favorite part.
As you can see, I learned to decrease. It's so easy! (I did k2tog, which is just grabbing two old stitches instead of one and otherwise knitting as usual. The directions I was using were for a hat knit in the round, so they didn't say anything about what to do when you got to the purl side, which wouldn't happen in the round. I've never heard of a p2tog, but that's what I did. It seemed to work fine. If I ever do something with more normal yarn, I'll have to find out whether the p2tog slants in the opposite direction or anything, but for this hat, it matters not in the least.) The funny thing is, I was in the car at a stoplight trying to explain to my non-knitting husband how you decrease in knitting, and just as I was making knitting gestures, two of my buddies from knitting night pulled up next to us at the stoplight, honking and waving!
Anyway, since the hat is basically done, there was no point taking that to knitting night, and I finished the baby blanket for Project Linus. I pulled out a piece I originally started for the contest at the Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival, but there was absolutely no chance that I would finish it by then. (That was back in February.) Apparently most other people had the same problem, because the contest ended up getting cancelled. So here I am still working on it.


As with most things I start when I'm not really paying attention, it is bigger than I intended. I like how it's coming along, though.
It was originally going to be much more flamboyant, but it evolved into more of a fairy tale sort of thing. I didn't really plan it, just picked a yarn and started crocheting, then picked the next one when I had a few rows of that done.


When I finish the gold chenille, I'm going to do another yarn in about the same color as the beginning (neck) part, only it's not faux suede, it's a soft rich base yarn with a few very long eyelash things. A lot of people really hate novelty yarns, but I think they can be a lot of fun if you put them together well. I bought a whole raft of novelty yarn on clearance last summer when Michael's and A.C. Moore started dumping it, specifically for the purpose of making things like this capelet. Honestly, I miss being able to wander around looking at all kinds of crazy colors and textures of yarn, but that fad is clearly over. The local yarn stores here only have serious yarn, and Michael's cut their yarn stock about in half and quit carrying anything except boring stuff and fun fur. The Hobby Lobby near me carries a lot of weird yarn, but it's mostly garish and crappy, and anyway it never changes. I miss going to A.C. Moore during the fad yarn heyday. It's a good thing I stocked up when I did!