AUGH

First the Jester Hat, now the Cabled Scarf. It was a busy weekend at the frog pond.

I noticed that my cabled scarf had two large holes - apparently, some stitches had added themselves along the way; and when I tried to just decrease the stitches and get things back to the status quo, it created some openings where they shouldn't be. So I tried to rip back just a couple of rows, to just a row or two beneath where the abomination showed itself.

Things were going well... until I dropped three stitches. They slowly began to ravel downward, and since this scarf is chock full o'cabley goodness, I didn't know where to begin to pick them back up. Sighing, I just ripped the whole bugger down and cast on again. I've already got the beginning ribbing done, and worked through almost half of the first pattern repeat. Maybe I'll have this scarf ready for next winter?

I AM Knitting!

I finished another chart repeat (16 rows) on the Cabled Scarf from Vogue Knitting last night. It's shaping up nicely, and even though I am taking a lot of time to get through it, it's a pretty intricate pattern so I'd rather not rush through it.

Having said that, I need train knitting. BIG time. So I cast on for a Jester Hat from Yarn Girls' Guide to Kid Knits. Will it be for Baby Boyd? Will it go into the knitting pile for Baby Benevides? I haven't the foggiest, to be honest; I do know that it's darn cute, it knits up fairly easily, and it's portable for train knitting. So there we have it.

I finished a Christening blanket for Ella, who's the daughter of Mike's best friend (and Will's godfather). I blogged about that over at RoeSpot, so you can go here to read about it if you haven't already. It's a cautionary tale about buying consistent dye lots and being wary of stash diving for large projects.

KAL... Coming Along...

I was able to get a bit more done on the cabled scarf KAL I'm part of; I took care of a few rows this weekend and worked a bit more tonight. I love, love, LOVE this Donata yarn. It knits up like a dream and I just know it's going to be sooo deliciously soft to wear, I'll almost look forward to the cold.

Merrily I KAL Along...

I made some progress on the Ravelry KAL tonight. It doesn't look like much, but you can definitely see the beginning of the cable showing itself. I love it and I love working with the Donata yarn. It is so soft and easy to work with, and it really works well with the bamboo double-pointed needle (dpn) I'm using in lieu of a cable needle as well as the aluminum needle I'm working the scarf on. It's 70% alpaca, so it just feels so soft, I want to wrap myself up in it now.

Knit-A-Long!

Hullo!

So I've blogged over on RoeSpot about the wonder that is Ravelry. For those of you uninitiated or who haven't heard me blathering, suffice to say it's kind of like a knitter/crocheter's MySpace minus the drama.

I've also found myself a cozy home on the YarnThing group of Ravelry. YarnThing is one of the knitting podcasts I recently started listening to and love. Marly, the host, is hilarious - I love when you hear her kids yelling, "Mommy!" in the background; I love that like me, she's absolutely okay with laughing at herself and inviting others in on the joke, and I really appreciate that she has no problem saying, "I love this pattern, but I'm not knitting it in cashmere. Do you know how expensive that is?"

Marly recently suggested that the Ravelry group start a Knit-A-Long (KAL) on this beautiful cabled scarf in the latest issue of Vogue Knitting, and having only participated in one KAL up 'til now, I jumped on the bandwagon. So over the next month or so, I'll blog here about the process of knitting the scarf, show some pictures as it's constructed, and blather on incessantly. First entry coming soon. Enjoy!