hat reveal and tons of other stuff

1. I finished A's hat. For the record, it's Cascade Eco Wool, knit at 5.5 stitches and 7 rows per inch on size 7 needles. Knit with some shaping advice from The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns.



2. Saturday night I had a dream about plastic canvas. (Ya know, the awful stuff used to make decorative toilet paper roll and tissue box cozies.) I've never worked with it before, and have absolutely no desire to, so it was really weird that I was using it in a dream. The next day, Alison posts about plastic canvas. This coincidence thoroughly spooks me.

3. I was inspired by Jessimuhka to try the 2 circs method for knitting small circumferences in the round. I used the instructions from Sweaters From Camp, and 2 different sized circs. It worked on my first try! I did find it quite fiddly to deal with dangly yarn and dangly circ ends. I knit a tube about an inch long, and it got a bit easier towards the end, which I suspect was for the same reasons using DPNs gets easier a few rows past the cast on. I'm not convinced that I'm going to rely on this method in the future, but I'm going to consider it. On one hand, it's nice to have a longer stretch of knitting between needle transitions - especially for something like fair isle, I'd imagine. But I do have a fear that this method will make me more likely to get laddering, which I don't get at all with DPNs. Also, with all the dangly bits, I imagine that adding in a second color for fair isle will make things even more tangled. But I do think it will be worth a try for more than a swatch at some point.

4. Of course, I'm shooting myself in the foot for the 2 circ method for upcoming projects, as I've just agreed to trade some of my duplicate sized circs. It's okay, though, because they're Crystal Palace. I dislike the joins on Crystal Palace circs (though Lauren says they've recently re-engineered them!), so I'm happy to get rid of the needles. Hopefully the person I'm giving them to will like them better than me, as many people seem to adore them. In return, I'm getting 2 skeins of Lorna's Laces sock yarn in this colorway.

5. I think I may start the Mamluke socks next week. They're from Folks Socks. I found a picture of them on Harlot's blog. (I know I've seen a picture of her completed pair somewhere, but this hit came up first in google, and I'm feeling slightly lazy.) I was planning on knitting them in an off-white and blue. The pattern calls for 2 skeins of Wendy Guernsey, which is 245 yards a skein. I have Patons Kroy, which has less yardage. I have 3 skeins of the lighter color, and thought I had more than 1 skein of the blue - a complete skein and some leftoever from A's Retro Ribs. Then I searched, and could only find one skein of blue, and it felt a bit wimpy. I weighed it, and then remembered that I used 2 full skeins plus a bit of this extra one for those previous socks. d'oh. So it's extremely unlikely that this skein of blue will be enough for the Mamlukes. As the point of this project was to use yarn I already have, I have one option - off white and orange. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I'm afraid there isn't enough contrast. What do you think? (I think there is more contrast in this photo than in real life, unfortunately.):



6. The Feral Knitter just posted a lot of really useful information about fair isle knitting. You should definitely go read that post. Most surprising to me was her claim that dye lot doesn't really matter. I was so surprised by this that I left her a comment, and we've been emailing back and forth this weekend. She said that in her experience, the difference between dye lots in Shetland jumper weight isn't that great, and that because of the complicated color combinations, not noticeable. This is great to hear. I'm no longer worried about dye lot issues with the vest. Also, it means I'm going to order less yarn than I thought I would have to order when I eventually knit the Autumn Color Cardigan. (The pattern was written when J&S jumperweight was sold in 1 oz. skeins. Now it's sold in slightly smaller 25 g. balls, which means you can never be sure if you'll have enough if you order the number of skeins a pattern suggests.) This will save me a lot of money. The pattern calls for 18 different colors, and ordering an extra ball for even half of them would add a lot to the cost of the project. Also, she told me that she's seen the sweater in person, and it's even nicer than in the book. I can't wait to knit it! It probably won't get started until the Spring, though. I think my goal is to knit it in time for the Cheshire County Fair next summer.