Monday, July 02, 2007

i'm delinquent again, aren't i?

I have a pile of yarn pr0n waiting to be uploaded (it's a few weeks old at this point, but still -- six months' of FO pictures! yarn haul from trips!), but this post has an entirely different purpose.

As a result of my experience at Phoenix Rising (which was amazing but incredibly busy, as I was 75% of a two-woman AV team), I've agreed to take the plunge and staff Narrate's next Harry Potter conference. Terminus is being held next August 7-11, 2008 at the Hilton Hotel in Chicago, overlooking Grant Park and Lake Michigan. It promises everything we've come to expect from cons -- academic programming, Quidditch, and the chance to catch up with fellow fans -- and some cool new stuff, like a trivia contest and a webcast talk show about the ways HP has affected us all. I'm terribly excited about all of it -- visiting Chicago, catching up with people I'd missed at PR, and watching hundreds of fans interact. I got a little wibbly at the opening feast this last time.

To make Terminus the biggest and best HP conference yet, we're looking for some lovely volunteers to help promote at the upcoming film and book releases. We'll send you some pretty great swag -- postcards, luggage tags, stickers (and a cheat sheet with basic info) -- to pass out to fellow fans at whichever release party you choose to attend. If you're a bit shy like me, it's a great way to get talking with other people instead of sitting and looking around. If this sounds like something you'd be willing to do, drop a comment or shoot me an email at lauren.kent*at*terminus2008.org. We'll be eternally grateful.

(And while writing up this post, I decided that yarn pr0n will happen on Wednesday. *nods*)

Lauren posted at 1.05 on 07.02.07 comments (1)

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

in absentia

I had been being absent because I was travelling. (Nothing exotic, just up to my mom's in Syracuse, but it was autumny and very nice.) Then I got blindsided by Halloween and spent a week sewing. Now I've got the worst affliction of them all -- technical trouble. The Wizard Ties site has been down for several days due the the incompetence of its webhost, and while I was trying to resolve that, the hard drive on my home PC started abruptly down the path toward nonexistence.

So, 'scuse my scarcity. Hopefully I won't lose too much data/sleep/sanity over this, but somehow I doubt it. Stupid Mercury retrograde.

Lauren posted at 14.33 on 11.01.06 comments (0)

Sunday, September 17, 2006

why, hello there.

The LJ feed tells me it's been 42 weeks since I updated this thing.

Um, oops?

I haven't got a really good excuse for that. Closest I have is work; I went permanent (I was temp-to-perm, remember?) in March, and just as I'd expected, as soon as I stopped having to fill out a timesheet, I started working crazy hours. 50 hour weeks have become the norm for me, and I've gone as high as 70. It's downright silly. But I still really like what I'm doing, and I'm working on a couple interesting long-term projects, and they trust me enough to send me on trips to other offices (my department supports 7 of them -- so far I've been to Bethesda, San Francisco, and Silicon Valley (Cupertino, if we're being precise)), so really I can't complain.

I've done some typically crazy things on my off time. In April, I took a week off and followed Franz Ferdinand on tour around the northeast, which was time-of-my-life amazing. (I took piles of pictures; they're here, and they'll also be in the Franz fan club magazine, which will be my first photo credit!) I also took shorter trips to Boston and Philly to see the Futureheads, and I took a day off to see San Francisco when I was there for work. I went to New Orleans on Memorial Day weekend for a site visit with the ladies of Phoenix Rising.

Umm... what else. I got my wisdom teeth out last month, which wasn't nearly as bad as I'd expected. (I'd set aside the recuperation time for finally putting the fringe on my Charlotte, and I forced myself to do it anyway even though I was well enough to go out.) I'm probably moving again in the not-too-distant future, hopefully within a stone's throw of where I am now, hopefully with the lovely Marilyn. I'm still (nearly) as single as can be. And concerts, I've got concerts.

And I've got much too little knitting to show for the past ten months. For weeks at a time, my only knitting opportunity was during my commute. I worked exclusively on my Peacock Feather shawl (I scrapped the blue alpaca, went for hot pink Zephyr instead :)) from June 'til September, working a half-row by rote every morning. I made a pair of springy, crocus-colored Badcaul socks, which now reside with my mother. I finished a red bulky "green" cabled cardigan just after the transit strike in December. My Kiri is finally blocking (and it's a good thing I stopped when I did, because it's exactly the size of my full-size bed). My new favoritest project is the Vee pullover I'm making in gorgeous green tussah silk -- Artfibers Golden Chai that I got as my San Fran souvenir. ;) I've got an eye for the short-sleeved Honorine from the new Magknits, too.

I'm finally excited about knitting again. It's a great feeling.

(One other note -- comments are essentially turned off right now. I'm gonna use an authentication service to prevent myself from getting spammed with thousands of junk comments like before, but it's not working yet. If anybody's got any tips on getting Typekey working, please shoot me an email!)

Lauren posted at 19.39 on 09.17.06 comments (0)

Saturday, November 26, 2005

oh, and happy thanksgiving too!

I know, I know, I disappeared again. For what it's worth, I pretty much disappeared from the entire internet in the past month, mostly because of work (even with the holiday weekend I still managed overtime this week, and the previous three weeks were all 50+ hours), but also because of...

...new apartment!!!

I didn't really want to move when I did (which was three weeks ago) but in retrospect I'm so glad I did, and I LOVE my new apartment. I'm in a 2-bedroom share in this funky doorman building on the Lower East Side. It's pretty much my dream apartment, and it's in my price range and everything! My fingers are crossed that I'll become permanent at work (which is going really well still -- we hired three new temps, so once they're trained, my workload should come down) by the time my roommate's lease is up, so that I can take it over. I have a ~10'x6' window that runs the length of my room, so I have plennnty of light if I want it (and pretty purple and gold curtains when I don't). AND I'm right around the corner from Downtown Yarns -- not necessarily a good thing, because it means I wind up dropping $50 on two skeins of Kaalund Expressions in Pacific when I run out "for pizza." But for all the OT I've been doing, I think I deserve a treat!

Knittingwise... the Kaalund is becoming my new Kiri, which is a much happier excursion than the (frogged) previous effort. The Alpaca Cloud from that is earmarked for the Peacock Feathers Shawl (though I may exchange for a new color -- I'm understandably sick of that shade of blue now :p). And in between, Ivete talked me into knitting a green-to-pink Charlotte's Web (it was inevitable!), which will be done as soon as I pick up a second skein of each of my last two colors. Stash reduction? What?

I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't seen GoF since it was actually released, but I did manage to see it twice before that :D -- one media screening and the NY premiere (after covering the red carpet for FictionAlley). I loooooved it, cried over the same part everyone else did, and I definitely must see it again. I have tons of knitting notes filed away in my head (house unity scarf! new Weasley sweater! twinhat! Ginny's woobie orange hat!) but 6am is not the time to get into that.

Since I've had a few emails, the animal cracker hat pattern is on hold until I'm actually out of work early enough to go to School Products to restock the Lamb's Pride that I used up at TWH. I can't even remember the last time I left early enough to be done yarnshopping at 6! sigh.

okay... back to bed for me.

Lauren posted at 6.38 on 11.26.05 comments (0)

Thursday, October 27, 2005

let's fade together

The short version of where I've been is that after I got back from the Witching Hour, I was eaten alive by Franz Ferdinand fandom for a week and a half. It's a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much: in my first eleven days back, I went to six concerts, four of which were Franz, and two of which were out of state. Any night I wasn't at a show, I was trying desperately to get some sleep, because -- oh right! -- I have a job, and it wouldn't really do to suddenly become a zombie after my first two weeks.

Happily I've managed to recover as far as sleep goes; the concerts were wonderful (the last one culminated in a kiss on the cheek from Franz's woobie guitarist); and I've reason to believe that my job will turn permanent in the not-too-distant future. But in the midst of all that, I completely lost track of my knitting, and that's simply no good.

I've been plodding along on Kiri everyday during my commute. She's about 15" along the center back, I'd guess, but my god, is it boring now. I reeeeally need something else to work on -- I think that's the problem, this lack of variety -- but I've been so busy/tired that I haven't had a moment to find something to inspire me. This is Bad.

So, here's what I'm gonna ask. Link me to something awesome. A project of yours, someone else's, a pattern you saw, a picture, anything. It's freezing in New York now and I desperately need new sweaters, and I can actually afford yarn again (yay!). I want to make something incredible, but on my own, I'm coming up short.

I'll recap TWH next time -- I've got a smattering of pictures, and unless you were there, you seriously won't believe how much the animal cracker hat went for in the auction.

Lauren posted at 0.28 on 10.27.05 comments (0)

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

hellooooo from salem!

Yeah, so... Witching Hour, then! My mom and I got in at 1am last night, thanks to a train disruption between New York and Boston. (I wound up taking a shiny new Acela train for the first time for cheaper than a regular train, so it wasn't all bad.) Just got back from volunteer orientation, and I gotta tell you, this thing is gonna rock. Under my front of exhaustion, I'm really excited.

And naturally, the first thing I did this morning? Scouted out the LYS here, Arabella Yarns. :D It's actually really close to the Salem Waterfront Hotel, where we're staying -- it's part of Pickering Wharf, which is immediately behind the hotel. They've got a decent selection of DK and larger yarns, including several nice Hatmione candidates and exactly the right blue Lambs Pride I was hoping they'd have. At some point (tomorrow or Monday I guess) I want to hit some yarn shops in Boston, because hi, nice yarn == souvenir. ;)

And why did I want blue Lambs Pride, you say? Because I made an animal cracker hat on impulse last night to wear this weekend, and I need blue for the braids. It's supercute and awesome and stays on just fine. whee.

So, everybody who's headed here this weekend -- if you see me, say hi! I'll probably wear a punky Gryff uniform on Friday, Ravenclaw Quidditch on Sunday, not sure about the other days. Look for the needles. ;)

Lauren posted at 17.24 on 10.05.05 comments (0)

Thursday, September 29, 2005

dear diary: life is cool.

yeah hi, my camera works again. My new excuse for never picspamming is work/TWH/concerts/occasional need for sleep.

(job rocks, btw. I pretty much love it to pieces. Nobody even batted an eye when I asked for a week off for TWH. Soon the company network will be flooded with HP-themed computer names, Hermione being the first one.)

Lauren posted at 1.35 on 09.29.05 comments (0)

Sunday, September 25, 2005

visualize success but don't believe your eyes

Excellent news -- I have a job! I interviewed on Friday and got a call with an offer not twenty minutes later, so starting tomorrow I'm a temp-to-perm computer geek at a technology investment firm in midtown. I'm surprised and excited and happy beyond the telling of it, because finding a job is the first step to me really being able to stay in the city long-term. I need to make sure, but I was told that taking time off for the Witching Hour won't be a problem. I really just can't believe how lucky I am. :D

The weather has finally cooled off in New York. I love the fall, because it means I can show off socks and scarves and sweaters. I've spent the weekend in sweatpants and sweaters and it's making me so happy. Hopefully the cold will stick, because I think everyone's gotten over the Indian summer we've been having.

I started Kiri last night, and so far it's coming along swimmingly. I'm working on US3 needles, which might be a bit small now that I'm a couple repeats into it, but I'm okay with a slightly denser shawl. I think it'd go faster if I didn't stretch out the work after every WS row to admire it, if only because my tension is pretty tight right now and the join on my needles (Crystal Palace bamboo) isn't too agreeable with laceweight.

The Katrina Hermione hat is close to decreasing -- it's been my carryalong project recently since I'm out of yarn on my current String project (a chunky cabled cardigan in their private-label cashmere, wah wah). I keep dragging my heels on the sweater for my landlady -- she has six 100g balls with no marked yardage. Assuming they're similar to Blue Sky Alpacas' sportweight, it's about 220 yards/100 grams, so I'm looking at 1320 yards, which seems like it's cutting it close for a heavily-cabled sweater. Basically I need to sit down and do the math, but wah, lazy.

Anyway, this is just me padding out a RL entry with knitting talk. Someone nag me about updating the GoF reference page! There's so much now that it's a bit intimidating.

Lauren posted at 14.10 on 09.25.05 comments (0)

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

making the best of what you have

It's been a while again, hasn't it? Last week was crazy for me, between having a social life and knitting frantically and trying not to stress out over those bits of real life that happen between stitches.

For starters: my financial aid fell through/never happened for the fall semester, so I'm now 11 credits short of finally earning my degree, with no foreseeable way of paying for those credits (~$11,000) out of pocket. Since I'm not in class this semester, I lost my job, so now I'm trying to resolve that as well. (Psst -- if anyone in the New York area needs a receptionist/admin assistant/photographer/IT geek, or knows someone who does, my resume's here. Yarn awaits anyone who gets me a job. ;)) My last day was on Friday, and all the explanations and goodbyes had me choked up all day.

On the topic of Katrina, I don't know what to say that hasn't already been said. My heart goes out to anyone who's been affected. I'm planning to destash by knitting for kids being taken in by a friend of a friend of my mom's in Jersey -- I've never really had the opportunity to knit for kids before, so I'm looking forward to it -- and I ordered another four balls of Andean Silk to do a Hermione hat/mittens set to auction either through MissionFish or Katrina's Keepers, in the same vein as the R2D2 hat that's currently at $360. I haven't got much to donate besides time and blood, both of which I intend to do, and knitting for a cause is such a warm, fuzzy feeling.

I, um, might've deviated from my yarn diet to order 4 skeins of Alpaca Cloud in Stream while I was making a Knitpicks order. I feel no remorse, or at least not much, because I'm itching to do a proper lace project, and I've been really good with finishing things this week. I've averaged 1 finished project every night for the past week, as follows:

Tuesday - Jon's mistake rib socks, since I thought I'd see him that night
Wednesday - String's Ab Fab poncho, which was an absolute delight aside from the degree to which it ate my brain
Thursday - the left TWH Hermione mitten on my morning commute, and the film Ravenclaw PoA scarf I cast on at the book release at night
Friday - worked on Soleil all day and would've finished had I brought an extra ball
Saturday - Soleil (it's just about done blocking now), and weaved all the Ab Fab ends (which is a project unto itself)

So, I think I deserve a bit of a treat, don't I? Aside from the fact that I'm about to dive into piles of cashmere (for String) and alpaca (for my roommate's mom) for my next several projects -- the blue laceweight can just sit and be petted for a while. Not that it'll actually happen, but let's pretend that it will.

eta: Might I just say? Sesame from the new MagKnits would make the perfect house sweater. Substitute your favorite house-colored DK yarn with the darker shade for A and the lighter for B, and it'd be all sorts of cool. I guess it's a blessing in disguise that I'd need a 44" to have decent wearing ease. ;)

Lauren posted at 1.53 on 09.06.05 comments (0)

Thursday, July 28, 2005

but hey, at least dumbledore likes knitting!

Hey, so I hear some book came out a few weeks ago? With, like, magic and snogging in it?

I can't say I was blown away by Half-Blood Prince. (I'll keep this spoiler-free, since there's no way to hide spoilers in an RSS feed.) I can say, though, that I read it so quickly (roughly 14 hours start to finish) and when I was so tired (I'd been up 21 hours when I started reading, do that math for yourself), that I don't really trust my first reaction to it. I got bored toward the middle; I was strangely underwhelmed by the ending. But we're well set up for book 7, and I can't wait.

But who cares about the book when there are costumes to talk about! I'm afraid that I dropped the ball (as always) on getting nice dignified costume pictures, but fortunately my friends and I wound up in the freaking NY Times (zoomed version here), so you can see our costumes decently there. I took some bad pictures of my Quidsocks, and in this one you can see my Quidditch sweater pretty well. I wound up not wearing my sweater sleeves at all - it was stiflingly humid, as July in NYC is apt to be, and I was sweating enough in just the sweater-vest. In case anyone's interested in more pictures from Union Square, all my pictures from the day are hosted here. Most of them are vaguely embarassing, but such is life.

As soon I'd recovered from HBP, I was knee-deep in preparations for moving to my new apartment in Brooklyn, which I did last Wednesday and Thursday. I'm fairly settled in, though not completely unpacked, and I still don't have internet access at home. Nor have I been at work, because on Saturday, in a show of spectacular klutziness, I slipped on wet tile and pulled a muscle in my back. So, instead of being productive, I've spent the last four days holed up in my room, propped up in a loveseat with little mobility from my waist, reading (I finished Tom Robbins' Jitterbug Perfume and am most of the way through The Hobbit; I can only deal with Tolkien when it's my only course of amusement). I only just picked up my knitting yesterday, to turn the heel of the second candy sock (I finished the first one while waiting for HBP and am wearing it here). I'm still waddling around with a grimace on my face, but between my PT (yes, I need physical therapy 'cause I fell three feet; how lame am I?) and the excellent care provided by my mom, I'm at least back in the office today, and much less grouchy to boot.

The one bit of good news I can report is that in the few days that I was internetless and uninjured, I finally got the Quidditch sock pictures off my camera (which, you might recall, broke in a most untimely fashion). They're now color-balanced and set into the pattern, which will officially be finished once I confirm my gauge. Once I have internet at home, I'll fiiiiinally be able to get the pattern online. About freaking time. :p

It's also cooling down a bit in the city, so I'm hoping that this weekend I can pop in my PoA DVD and take a couple last notes to get started in earnest on the animal cracker hat. I think I can deal with bulky-weight wool when the high is 76°, at least.

Lauren posted at 13.02 on 07.28.05 comments (0)

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

point and counterpoint

As though in answer to my last post...

I was on the subway Saturday night, headed out to Prospect Park for their Canada Day concert (which was very very awesome - as though I could be disappointed by any bill which featured both the New Pornographers and Stars). The trains were running a bit strangely, in such a way that people bound for both the poshest and (ahem) less savory parts of Brooklyn were all smushed, rather tightly, onto the same train. I'd managed to weasel a seat for myself, whipped out my Quidsock, and started knitting.

A few stops before mine, a woman sitting across from me, whom I'd noticed goggling at me, stood up, came over, and tapped me on the shoulder. I was wary but I didn't really have a way to make like I'd not noticed her, so I took off my headphones.

"Are you American?" she asked.

Huh?

"I don't usually see American women knit the way you do, throwing the yarn. They usually catch it with the needle. I knit the same way you do, but I thought maybe you were European."

Hmm, okay.

"And that yarn is so fine - you must really be dedicated."

Well, I'm replicating a design from a movie, so I wanted to be accurate.

"That's so nice of you. Good luck with it." And she got off.

Win some, lose some, I guess.

(And the sock? I'm nearly up to the leg stripes. Sucker is so gonna be finished for HBP. w00ters.)

Lauren posted at 9.02 on 06.28.05 comments (0)

Friday, June 24, 2005

stupid and shallow

Sometimes I forget that normal people, even in urban centers where knitting is supposedly OMG ALL TEH RAGE!!!, are not accustomed to seeing twentysomethings knitting socks. Particularly, it seems, when said sock is knit on two circular needles (I find this intimidates normies even more than doublepoints, despite looking much less like a porcupine tangled in yarn), and most especially when said twentysomething is dressed in the fashion of The Kids These Days and sweaty and bopping along to one obscure band or another.

Then some bitch on the bus ruins my concert-induced, Futureheads-heightened euphoria by glaring at me the entire ride home. Fuck you too, sweetheart.

Lauren posted at 15.15 on 06.24.05 comments (0)

Thursday, June 23, 2005

a little good, a little bad

Okay, so. For once, I actually made good on my promise of FO pictures and dutifully brought the Quidditch sock and camera with me when I went to Long Island last week for the Pixies/Interpol show at Jones Beach. (The concert was amazing, for anyone who's interested.) Took plenty of pictures in Adrienne's yard, got back into the city... and my camera LCD had uncermoniously ceased to function. So, as it stands, I have an unfinalized mini-CD of socks pictures just waiting to be processed and inserted into an otherwise finished pattern, and now that I've upgraded my computer to XP it can't read unfinalized discs.

In short? Until I get the LCD fixed, I'm SOL. And given that I'm moving in the not-so-distant future, I have no clue when I'll have more disposable cash to throw at this camera. I love it to pieces, but it sure can be a pain in the arse.

In the meantime, I'm about a third of the way up the leg of the second sock. Thank you, too-hot-for-scarfknitting weather! I've been toting the sock with me everywhere I go, knitting on the bus, on the train, while walking, while my boss is gone. (Naturally the moment I typed that, my boss walks in. La dee da...) I'm very proud of myself, for a multitude of reasons:

1) I've mastered the fine art of working 4x2 ribbing without looking. Maybe this is easy for you, but until recently I had to glance down occasionally while purling. This is a huge step forward in my quest to knit 24-7.

2) I've never successfully met a costume deadline before, and it really seems like I might this time. (Actually, that's a bit of a lie. I finished my SS/CoS Ravenclaw sweater in time for the OotP release, except that I meant to go back and fix a *cough* slight dyelot problem across the yoke, so I didn't consider the sweater completed at the time. Needless to say, it's been two years and I haven't touched the sweater except to wear it.)

3) Quidditch socks are really damn cool, and I'm psyched beyond words to finally have a pair. I 100% intend to wear them during the HP off-season, especially in the winter. I live for kneesocks in the winter.

I washed the first of those many scarves this week. Naturally it was the only machine washable one, but I think I made up for the lack of effort there by spending three hours duplicate-stitching a rampant lion at one end. I refused to realize it at the time, but the lion looks much more like a rampaging monkey. The scarf is for my coworker's sister and he's going home this weekend. Oops.

I have to clean the bathroom sink before I can wash any more scarves. I predict that this (simple, you would assume) task will hold me up for at least a week. I'm not lazy, I'm busy. Honest.

I was at P&S yesterday buying more scarf yarn and made the fatal mistake of wandering through the fancy fabric section. What did I find, you ask? The perfect white silk for Padmé's lavender dress from Episode 3. Sonofabitch. It was exactly the right weight and texture on both sides (since both sides show), just gorgeous stuff. I died right there in the store. It wouldn't come cheap, though - it was $15/yd and I can't imagine I'd need less than 10 yards since all the pieces are on the bias. Plus the thought of dyeing $150 worth of fabric myself is scary enough to give me palpitations just thinking about it. I'm such a spazz.

Lauren posted at 11.52 on 06.23.05 comments (0)

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

sun, plz!

Server move went fine, as evidenced by the fact that I can post this. I moved to Solid Internet, in case anyone cares, which means I'm paying half as much for twice as much space. Excellent.

I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that I've done almost no knitting recently. I've been preoccupied alternately with school, concerts (four in the last week, all fantastic), and Toy Fair. I knitted for about half of last week's Survivor, but that's about it. Sucks because I know I'm a lot saner when I'm knitting regularly, definitely less prone to spazz-outs and dawdling. But with an exam and three papers due in the same week, what's a girl to do?

I cannot wait for it to warm up. Not that it's been that bad - just chilly enough for me to grab a latte and bus to campus instead of walking, and just icky enough for me to function at less than full capacity. A month from now I'll be walking two miles daily in the sun and knitting the whole time. I freaking can't wait.

Lauren posted at 21.00 on 03.01.05 comments (0)

Saturday, February 12, 2005

d'oh!

So exceedingly annoyed at the moment. I've been working on my very last wool/acrylic scarf ever.* It's the very last pair of grey stripes I'll ever knit...

...and I've come up three yards short on grey yarn.

It's not the absolute end of the world -- I just have to wind a bit off the skein Destiny's been working from -- but it still pisses me off to no end. I was looking forward to the satisfaction of finishing this scarf tonight. Guess it wasn't meant to be.

*I told a coworker I'd knit an old-style wool/acrylic Gryffindor scarf for his sister, so it's not the absolute last wool blend scarf I'll ever have knitted, but it's close enough. Knitting for someone you know (or even someone who knows someone you know) is so much more fulfilling than knitting for strangers.

No offense, of course. ;)

Lauren posted at 0.26 on 02.12.05 comments (0)

Monday, January 03, 2005

i know, i know, i swore i wouldn't post yet...

...but I've been up to some pretty snazzy stuff recently, if I do say so myself.

Firstly, I'm almost finished with the Hermione mittens I've been working on for Gidget. I knit the left one first and then transcribed and reversed that pattern for the right hand, and I'm about up to the finger webbing on that one. They've knit up surprisingly fast considering I haven't really dedicated any blocks of time to them, just spare moments. Anyway:

They fit a bit snugly on me, but my hands are pretty big. Plus, they're still unblocked, so that'll help with the sizing, too. Just like the hat, they're Cascade 220 in #9404 ruby, but knit on #6s this time so they're denser. I'm trying to finish the pattern sooner rather than later, so keep your eyes peeled!

I've been stopping myself from working up a pattern for Ron's animal cracker hat for a long time because other folks keep putting dibs on it, but AFAIK no one's come through yet. So, I give! I spent some of New Year's picking Adrienne's brain about her Ron hat observations, and I threw together a test swatch last night:

It's Cascade 220 again, but knit as a triple strand on #11 needles. I'm getting about 3 stitches to the inch so even with the Fair Isle, it knits up pretty quickly. I kinda really hate the green/yellow mix at the top though. I thought that might've been what's going on because -- well, it's too complicated to explain, but that'd been my best guess at the top of the hat -- but it's really distracting and fugly. So, it's back to plan B, which involves both Fair Isle and duplicate stitching for a few rows. Sigh.

Also, I spent last week working at String on the Upper East Side while NYU was closed, and I took advantage of my discount (yays!) to buy some Koigu for socks for Jon:

The variegated yarn will be the body of the foot, with the brown (it's brown and not black, the light in our apartment is crap today) at the toe, heel, and maybe cuff, and I'm planning to use the stranded stitch from Crusoe. Mine will be toe-up, of course!

Lauren posted at 13.55 on 01.03.05 comments (0)