Swaps

So while Andromeda is the HoH for swap, I'm going to be working on the Tri-Wizard Tournament, so that should be a lot of fun and I'm actually quite excited.

I'm also excited because I'll get to do HSKS7 this year and return for another term. Now I'll not only be more experienced as a swapper, but also as a knitter and so I won't have to be so inventive with my patterns for the handmade object. I'll actually be able to take a pattern (maybe from the wonderful book Dagmara gave me?) and use that.

In other news, I finished the child's size hat and I already put it in the collection bin. It turned out rather nice. I'm thinking about putting the pattern up online for anyone who wants to use it. It's a basic beanie pattern with a bit of colorwork, which is what makes it fun. The colorwork is originally done in one contrasting color, though it could easily be adapted for two.

Anyways, I should go soon. It's time to start the day and I'll get the pattern up later. It's a very fast knit.

Hats, Hats, Hats

For the HLBOES, Andromeda and I had a duel and we each had to make a Dobby Hat. I made hers in Gryffindor colors and she made mine in Slytherin colors. I recieved hers in the mail today, along with a gummy snake and a set of US size 8 circular needles, perfect for working on another SPEW hat whilst my Fair Isle projects take up my other set of circulars. ^_^

Just a personal note, but I think those colors are some of the ugliest two I've ever seen together. I am not meaning offense to people who happen to like orange, but orange doesn't seem to go well with light blue/purple/whatever that color is supposed to be.

And I don't know what that means for the HLBOES HoH duel, but I guess we'll have to wait for Grandma and Pren to decide that. And I hope Andromeda likes what I put in her package, too. :)

So I think I shall be starting a second SPEW hat, similar pattern to my first one, only I'll be donating it locally this time. We're having a local warm clothing drive at my school, so I think it might be nice to knit something for them.

And now I am off to knit and watch a movie... and I'll be knitting while watching a documentary with some friends tonight. I just need to keep my hands busy or else I'll start chattering, which would be utterly rude. I'll probably end up taking my Special Olympics Scarf to work on.

Finished SPEW Hat!

So I finished the hat I'm making for SPEW... I think it's the fastest thing I've ever knit. And here are a few pictures of it. This is probably one of the best pictures out of the several I took.And this is a close-up of the colorwork. So it'll soon be going off to someone who needs a hat a whole lot more than I do. ^_^

Accidental Colorwork

So I don't know what the name of the technique I was using to do the colorwork is, but for the SPEW hat I'm making (SPEW=Society for the Production of Excellent Wearables), I did this cool design with the white on the navy blue. I think it was some variation of a Fair Isle knitting technique because I let the color A run along the back while I was knitting with B.

Of course, since it happened by accident, I didn't use proper technique by any stretch of the imagination. I was actually waiting for a meeting and I was about to begin a white stripe in a blue hat I'm making. Since I didn't have scissors with me, I decided that maybe doing every couple of stitches with white and the rest with blue would be an interesting idea to try out. I figured I could always unravel if it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to.

Fortunately, it turned out much nicer and I just made up the pattern row by row as I went along, working with multiples of five stitches (there were 80 stitches total, so that's a nice round number to play with). This turned out excellently for a first color project (besides for your basic horizontal stripes).

I'm back onto stockinette stitching in the blue yarn (my MC for this project) and I have yet to do the decreases for the hat, but it looks like my first hat will turn out nicely. I'm quite excited and I'll be sending it off to SPEW after taking lots of pictures when it's done.

I'll also post the pattern (including the colorwork pattern) here when I'm finished. It's pretty basic and out of a complexity scale from 1-10 (10 being cabled and lacework socks, 1 being your basic garter stitch scarf), I'd give it about a 3 or so.

ETA: I was actually doing a stranded Fair Isle colorwork technique, albeit a simple pattern and not doing it correctly (accidents happen, right?).

More Projects

So I've found a bunch of other places for knitting for charity. I also have a surplus of the Red Heart Supersaver Yarn, which is far too nasty feeling to use for anything that I make for myself (I've recently acquired some Cascade 220 for a few personal projects), but after I finish the scarf I'm making for the Special Olympics, I'd like to make a hat.

To-Do List

1. Finish the stuff for Cassandra C. Like the bag.

2. Finish the scarf I'm knitting for the Special Olympics.

3. Make at least one hat for charity.

4. Make Christmas gifts in time to either send them off or give them away.

5. The duel hat in burgandy and gold.

I'm going on a road trip Thursday, so I'll probably have a fair amount of time to knit in the car. Hoorah! I'll likely be taking the scarf I'm working on to keep me busy; it's a simple enough pattern I don't need to be paying complete attention to what I'm doing.

Special Olympics Scarf Project

So, I started making a scarf for the Special Olympics scarf project. It's going to be done in P2K2 ribbing with my favorite size 10 needles. A bit large for the worsted weight yarn, but it'll be nice.

The yarn they require is also fairly inexpensive; I picked mine up at Walmart. It's the Red Heart Supersaver yarn, so it's not supernice to work with, but it's functional.

The pattern is simple enough that I can knit it while I'm watching a movie or in the car (I don't have to fully concentrate on what I'm trying to do), but it's also not your everyday garter stitch all the way across for a few hundred rows. That would be boring.

What's really awesome is that they give each of the athletes a handmade scarf.

If you're interested, here's the link to the site about the scarves.

I'll be taking mine on the car ride I'm going on this Thursday and hopefully I'll get a good portion of it done. A good four hours of knitting never did anyone harm, did it?