I finished the hat for my second sister. She wanted a beanie type hat that didn’t fold, with white and maroon stripes of equal width. That’s not exactly what she’s getting — I screwed up the first repeat and made the maroon two rows wider than the white. This yarn (which my other sister picked out - Bernat Soft Boucle) does NOT like to be ripped — in fact, I was having a lot of trouble dealing with it in general. So rather than give up all the progress that I’d made, I just decided that she was getting a hat with slightly smaller white stripes than maroon stripes. I think it turned out looking pretty good:

Picture doesn’t really do the color justice; I cheated and put it on A and used the flash, and it shows. Blech. Overall, though, I’m really happy with the hat. I thought it was going to be too small, but as long as her head size is similar to mine, it’ll fit.

I also have a picture of the Coronet that I finished a few weeks ago:

I wish the photos showed the cable better; I think it turned out really well. I’m very happy with this hat. I do wish it had a smidge more length, and if I knit another (which I probably will) I will add about an inch to the length. In the large scheme of things, though, it’s nothing really to complain about.

As it turns out, I had to give up coaching soccer, so I won’t need it for soccer games and could have made it in a more attractive color. But I still plan to go be a spectator as often as I can, so I guess it’ll be nice to be decked out in school colors even though I’m not coaching.

I am also almost finished — okay, well at least half finished — with the back of my son’s sweater, and that is moving along quite quickly. I’ve finally gotten to the striped portion, so it’s a little more exciting to knit. I think I’m going to do the sleeves once I finish the back, and do the front last. (I don’t know why; I just don’t want the sleeves to be left to do when I’ve finished the rest of it.)

I’ve had a lot of time to knit lately — sitting in doctor’s offices waiting rooms. While I was in the ER taking my medication (I had to take it for the first time in the ER because they were afraid I would have a seriously bad reaction to it), I spoke to an older woman who told me she was very impressed to see me knitting — that she had never been able to master it. I told her I certainly wouldn’t call myself a master of it, but she said she’d been watching me and I was absolutely more masterful than she was. It made me smile. In the opthamologist’s office, I had a woman come over and say “I’ve been watching you do that from over there, and wanted to come watch from up close; my neice bought me a how-to-knit kit and I just can’t figure out how it works.” So I showed her what I was doing and we chatted about it a little bit. I try not to get annoyed, because I realize that I bring it on myself by doing something “unusual” in public, but I really just don’t like people bugging me when I’m working on something. I think I managed to be pleasant about it, though. At least the comments and looks I get are more friendly than when I was nursing in public!

I think I’ve figured out that I’m actually knitting wrong. I think I’m wrapping my yarn around the needle backwards when I make a knit stitch. I figured this out by watching one of the little “how-to” clips on the internet about a YO, and noticed that the following knit stitch was done differently than I do. I tried it the other way, and it’s just as comfortable as the way I’ve been doing it — so I think when I start a new project, I’ll start doing it that way. I think doing the way I do has resulted in all my knit stitches being a little weird — maybe being twisted. It still looks okay to my eyes, but I’m going to try doing it the other way and see if I prefer one over the other.

Speaking of next project — what is it going to be?? I have a few things in mind:

• a shawl. I go back and forth on which one I want to do — there’s one in one of the Melville books that I think I’d really like to do, and there’s also Clapotis. I can’t decide! But I’d like to have one.
• Mariah from Knitty. I don’t know that I’m an advanced enough knitter for this one — but really, that hasn’t stopped me from anything, and I can learn as I go. I wouldn’t do it in wool, but I know there’s a knitalong going on where they’ve discussed yarn subs. I could use it in the place of my green jacket thing that I wear at work all the time!
• Hurry up Spring Wristwarmers from SnB Nation. Again, to wear at work, because my classroom is so cold all the time. I already have yarn that I could use for this — a deep red wool/acrylic blend that I really like. I can’t remember what I was thinking I’d use it for when I bought it . . .
• Mom’s purse. But she’s gotta get me the yarn for this one. She’s coming to town next weekend; I’m thinking I’m going to drag her to the yarn store.

So there are possibilities — in fact, maybe too many possibilities!! Those listed are only the things I’m seriously considering as next; I didn’t include things I’d really like to do soon, but maybe not right now. I think most likely, since I already have the yarn, the next thing I’ll cast on for is the wristwarmers.

Okay, time to go get ready to go to dinner. I’m really hoping to have the back of Nate’s sweater finished by the end of the evening!

Okay, well maybe not really galore. I don’t know if you can call “two” something to get excited about. But yes, I have finished the two hats I had on the needles. I finished my Coronet last Sunday (in time to wear it to our first soccer game) and I finished my little sister’s hat Friday night. (Or, technically, yesterday when I finished weaving in the ends.) But both hats are finit! And that’s very exciting for me.

I wore my hat to our sub-zero (okay, not really, but it sure felt that way to me) soccer tournament this week. The girls were very impressed, and co-coach said “Wow, I wish I had one!” Apparently, in the group of 18 that went on this trip, I am the only one who thought to watch a weather forecast. So I was relatively warm, in spite of the vicious wind and sub-arctic temps, while everyone else was not. The Coronet did a great job of keeping my head warm, particularly when paired with the hood from my sweatshirt. I was quite happy with it.

One of my girls told me she learned to knit over the holiday, but she looked kind of stunned by my hat. She said “Oh, I couldn’t ever do that; I’m doing scarves and that’s all.” When I told her I only learned to knit about a month before she did, and that the hat really wasn’t hard, I could see her face kind of light up with the possibilities. She sometimes has a real problem with confidence, in spite of being quite sharp, and I hope that she doesn’t unnecessarily limit herself.

The hat that I knit for my sister is a very modified version of the Hot Head pattern in the SnB book. It’s gray and white, and I think she’s going to like it. She gave me a general idea of what she wanted (stripes, less white than gray, doesn’t fold up) and I think (or at least I hope) she’s going to be pleasantly surprised by the hat. It only took me a few hours to finish, once I finally found the time to sit down and work on it.

I had to rip out what I had done on the sleeves of Nate’s sweater; those increases are really giving me fits. Every time I think I have figured out what to do, I come across a flaw in my thinking. I went back and really read and thought about the explanation I was given again, and drew some charts and graphs, and I think — I really, really think — I’ve figured out what to do now. Of course, I’ve also decided to cast on for the next size up of sweater, because if it’s going to take me this long to knit, he won’t be able to wear it if I make the size 2. Size 4/6 seems sooo huge for my little man — but if he can’t wear it until a couple of years from now, that’ll be okay. It’s better than spending all the time knitting it for him to never wear it because he outgrows it before it gets cold again. At this point, it’s looking like a sibling might be unlikely, so it might never see any use on a child of mine and that would really disappoint me.

No pictures today because my eye is really hurting and the camera tortures it. The neurologist did not have great news for me — while they know what’s wrong with me (pseudotumor cerebri — figure I may as well get used to saying it/typing it/hearing it) the treatment is not so clear cut, because of some complicating issues that I am lucky enough to have. The words “permanent vision loss” I think are going to be echoing around my head for a long time. Speaking of that, I need to go locate an opthamologist.

I finished the band for my actual Coronet, and again, I’m so proud of myself! I think it looks good:

The grafting went more easily this time around, and it looks better, though I’m still not really happy with it. I think the trick might be the opposite of what Melville says to do in her book — she says to wait until the end to pull it tight, but I really think it might look better if I tightened as I went. Next time I have to graft, I’ll try it that way.

I cannot find a 16″ circular needle for my life. I think I’m going to try to convince my sister (who is here for the week to see my son) to go on adventure actually into Houston (*gasp*) to go to a yarn shop. If we go while she’s here, then I’ll have gone once, and I’ll feel a lot more comfortable going by myself next time (when I actually have money to spend!), and I won’t have to drag my husband to a yarn shop (which would be one hell of a feat). I’m thinking if we don’t make it, my other option is to try to talk my friend Heather into going one weekend, because she has absolutely no shyness about going into Houston (I’m such a traffic-phobe. Or maybe it’s a getting-lost-phobe. I don’t know, I’m a something phobe.).

I also finished my “practice” with the DPNs on the practice band that I made. I ended up with a strange looking little thing that actually functions pretty well as a shallow bowl with pretty cabled sides. In spite of really deciding several times during the night that I had had enough practice and I was not going to finish all the decreases because I was going crazy, I did in fact complete all of them. (So I essentially did the hat, without the middle part of stockinette stitch.) I think I’m really going to like the way this hat looks (if I ever find a circ to finish it, because I am not doing all that stitching on DPNs). This is what my practice looked like:

As I said, overall I’m pretty happy with the way it looks!

I did try the two-circular method when I couldn’t find a 16″ circ, and I have to say I hated. While the DPNs were frustrating and difficult, I felt like eventually — with enough practice — I could come to terms with them and actually maybe even enjoy having mastered them. The two circs — I just hated. Hated, hated, hated. I really can’t put my finger on why, either. But I do know that I will be doing as much circular needing on single circs as I can, and then the rest on DPNs. I won’t be doing the 2-circ thing again.

I also cast on for a sweater for my son! It’s a lovely gray yarn with maroon-ish/rust-ish (very desriptive, huh?) contrasting yarn for stripes. I think it’s going to look great! I started with the sleeves. I’m not very far into it — only a couple of inches. I ran into a problem — I couldn’t figure out how to work my increases into my rib pattern. The very helpful people at The Knitty Coffeeshop helped me figure out what to do; now I think I’ve got it worked out in my head and just have to sit down and do it. Scary. But exciting!

I got my first requests to knit something for someone else — my little sisters both want hats in school colors. (One in maroon and white for Missisiippi State, the other in red and blue for Ole Miss. Yeah, it’s fun in our family. I opted out altogether and went to school in Texas — and stayed here!) I’m excited about doing it! I haven’t picked out exactly which pattern I want to use, but my sister who is here for a visit is going to go with me to pick out yarn to do them in. And buy me new needles (that’s my “payment”). Oh, actually, I lied. My mom wants me to knit her a purse, but I’ve already found the pattern and the yarn I’m going to use for that — just waiting until she can send me money for the yarn.

This is all so much fun!!!