Neonish turquoise scarf

 I am working on a New Year present for my friend...
 I've found a great pattern for cabled scarf, only front cables (left slanted ones) and on every 8th row only!    Such gorgeous turquoise  color!
  I just hope it will be done by tomorrow, I'm about half way through!

Coasters

 I am accumulating lots of leftover yarns (and lots of yarn but that's another story!) that I am saving for something to use for.

Well, I have found this pattern and made 3 coasters so far! Yay! I love to use leftover yarn for something!

 I made 2 from remnants of my first soaker and one from Noro I had left over from the bag. I think I will have to felt them more (and to make more of them), but I like how they look like. Perfect for all that varigated yarn remains! And easy to make, even for clumsy with DPN person like me. Pattern is here:

Felted coasters by Berroco

 Interesting - skill level is marked as Intermediate. Maybe because of DPNs, maybe because of all those decreases.... I would put it on advanced beginner...

Dusty rose scarf

  My DH's aunt gave me some very nice old yarn when we visited last fall. I think yarn is about 20 years old (at least), and it doesn't even has yardage on the label - meters really, it's old yarn from Macedonia, when Macedonia was part of the Yugoslavia long time ago, in another galaxy far far away ...

  Color is very nice, kind of dusty rose, and I had 4 skeins, so I figured it out that I can for sure make a scarf, even if I don't know how much yarn I have. Pink is not my color, so I decided to make a present for the wife of my FIL.

  Turned out really nice, I wish I had made it wider, but I didn't have bigger needles, and she is small, like me, so I think it will be good. Pattern is really nice, Sequoia cable scarf, with 2 wide cables going accross each other, and one that intersect before next two start. Easy and very nice looking. Cables pop out and rose has nice sheen:

I just don't like mohair very much, I'm spoiled by all those nice Purewool I have, soft and buttery...

Finished scarf looks very nice, I am eagerly waiting for the package to arrive :)

Steampunk scarf - done!

 It's been a while, and yet I feel I haven't accomplished anything. Not true, although I have that feeling because my New Year scarf for DH and friend are nowhere near complete! I have to work on them every night, especially one for DH - it's going to be another steampunk scarf but with different color scheme, of course, he loves dark colors!

 But I did finish Steampunk scarf - it's gorgeous, and I love it, and it's MINE, only MINE, and nobody's ELSE! Took me at least 3 weeks of steady work to make it, and worst thing is that my DH likes it, so I'm making one for him now (New Year present hopefully). Those cables take forever!

  
 Somebody at knitting group told me that usually cables are not done on every row (as they are in this scarf) so cables are not so demanding usually... and this pattern was recommended as a good one for cable beginners! Well, I can't tell it's not the truth, you do learn them very well, but the difference between 2 cables on every row, plus 4 cables on every 4th row versus only 2 cables on every 8th row is huge - I have just found great pattern Irish Hiking Scarf for my friend, and I wish I learned cables on it :) It would be much easier... but my scarf is awesome looking, I am wearing it all the time :)

Steampunk scarf Part II

   I'm still working on it! I can't believe how slow it's going, but that must be because of all those cables I'm knitting. I made a peace with cable needle that looks like straight line with a hump on the middle - that was the only one I can use to get those cable stitches knitted after I move them to cable needle. Other ones in the kit are good for holding stitches, but I can't knit off them. Maybe somebody else can, but I'm ok with using one I figured it out - at least for now.
 Anyways, it's almost done, I need to figure out how long I really want it to be. Pattern suggested 65" but that's a man pattern, I'm not that tall, so I think it should be less. Right now, I need couple of more inches to add so both sides will reach my pants' pockets, then we will see will I add any more or keep it that long.
 And then I have to do it again :( for my DH... eh... plus he is tall, so no short scarf there :(
 If I can do it by New Year, I can put it under the tree.  :)

Steampunk scarf

 Original pattern is called "Antlers scarf" from "Son of a Stich 'n' Bitch" book. I've showed the book to my DH, and that was the only pattern he liked (and robot tie under "interesting" category :). It said in description that this pattern is very good for learning how to make cables, so I decided to try.
 After unsucessfull try with robot hat, I've decided to first try this on scarf for myself, just in case :) So I got 2 skeins of Nuts Purewool, and started. Color is actually more rust and metal combination, in my opinion, so steampunk scarf it is! And it's for myself, since DH said he doesn't like red, even rusty red... I love it.
 I did 2 repeats of pattern so far, trying to get a feel for how to hold that cable needle...

Baby berry hat finished!

 This is first time that promise of an easy and fast knit is fulfilled for me - everytime somebody says something is easy, usually it's not for such a new knitter such as myself. After all, I've learned to knit just this year!

 This time, it was true - it was easy and it was fast - I did it in 2 evenings, because I left I-cord making for next day. It's not my favorite thing to knit, that's for sure. I was thinking about learning to crochet just to be able to faster knit those i-cords. All those longies I've made for DS that I need to make i-cord for (at least 3 right now)...

 Geeky? You bet - that green is such a lovely neonish green!

 Hat is still damp, but this is how it's looks like (oh, I am so proud :)

Baby berry hat

 This is my first attempt to make baby hat. I have lovely Debbi Bliss Prima bamboo/merino in Peach color. My coworker's baby girl is going to be one year next weekend, so I will try to make Baby Berry Hat for her. It's so soft and silky, I'm sure she will love it (if I manage to finish it up).
 This pattern is free and very nice because it starts with circular needles, telling you to switch to DPNs only when you have to, what is very nice, because I do try to use circulars as long as possible - DPNs are so hard (still) for me...
  Yarn has lovely sheen when knitted - it's not so pretty in the skein as when knitted, what is always a good sign :) And it feels great on hands when knitting. I love bamboo...

 Here is the picture of the curly edge - that's it so far ...

Hello world!

This is how it should be - it all starts with "Hello world" or this wouldn't be proper geek blog.

No, I haven't knitted anything with Hello world (yet) but I tried my hand on robot hat as a next geek thing :)

Pattern is free, chart is great, although I prefer written instructions than charts, but end result is not fitting, alas. Ah, fair isle knitting is harder than I thought.

So I got 2 skeins of Knitpicks Swish DK (superwash) charcoal wool, since my DH will not agree to any other color there, besides monitor green robots and black for hat; I also bought one skein of Asparagus Swish DK for robots. I was afraid that I will run out of black yarn, because brim was done in different color on the pattern, but it was enough with nice chunk of leftover for something else.

After 3 unsuccessful attempts to do this on Size #6 DPNs (I HATE THOSE) when my stitches just keep sliding off, helpful people on diaperswappers.com suggested to work on circular needles and switch to DPN when I start doing decreases i.e. after robots. That was lifesaver so I started on a ribbing.

Ribbing is done in strange pattern (for me), but since this is my first hat, I just knitted on. k3 p1 looked kind of wide, but since my geeky DH has big head, it was ok; so I hoped. Then we got to the robots part...

One of the tecniques for Fair Isle is to do one color in Contitental, one in English style. Sounds really neat, so I've tried... and tried... and tried. For the same reason I "invented" Continental stitch while my teacher tried to teach me English one, I can't do English stitch. It didn't matter in regular knitting, since Continenal is faster :) but in Fair Isle that meant I had to drop yarn _all _the_time :( Awful. I have no idea why it's hard for me to do English way, but it's so awkward for me, so I always end up doing it other way :(

To avoid long floats on the back, I twisted every 2-3 stitches - it looks really neat on the back! I don't have to worry about DH sticking his finger in the floats on the back! More dropping of the yarn though :(

And thing hibernated there till we came from vacation... I was so proud, but scared to continue and ruin the rest of the hat by making mistakes. It took 3 hints from my DH to continue to work on it :)

So I switched to DPNs... In the meantime, I bought Knitpicks wooden DPNS (Harmony), because stitches will slide less from wood and they are so beautiful. Yes, they did help a lot, but I don't think I can do whole hat on them no matter what. Viva la circulars!

Decreases on this pattern are strange - I remember my teacher mentioning that when we lean decreases, we will almost never do them on row by row; one row of decrease, one row of knit. Looks like this is one of the cases when this is not true. Hmmm....

Took me 2 evenings to get all those decreases to 2 on each needle. This is hard on my hands - when they are cramped for space they hurt, and this is small space for sure. I don't think I am going to be baby hats knitter :( Probably not adult hat knitter either - I never wear hats, and this pattern got me because ROBOTS are there :)

So DH tried it on and what a disappointment - ribbing is floppy, by design looks like, but robots part is too tight on his head! So I will have to frog it :(

According to nice people on Ravelry, stranded work being too tight is normal newbie mistake on Fair Isle :( I wish I knew that beforehand!

I took picture so that I have a proof that I did it, before I frog this offending hat and attempt this again...