Icarus Takes Off

The yarn for the Icarus Shawl arrived yesterday. It's so very, very yummy. I was too busy yesterday to cast on and too distracted for that matter, but I managed to cast on today. And start over two or three (or four?) times. It's really too hot for knitting today and while I think I'm starting to figure out how to read charts (I've knitted 6 rows of Chart 1 so far), it's still a bit scary and I think this will end up being a months-long project. I'm already starting to think that it's better to just knit one or two rows at a time. And when I get further along, probably just knitting one or only half of a row will be the best thing to do.

But. I've cast on. The Icarus Shawl is on the way!

Jaywalker, the Second - First Sock

One down. One to go. I started this on May 10th and suffered somewhat from Second Sock Syndrom even while doing the first sock. Of course, having a few other projects to finish while doing this didn't help. I have a feeling that I'll get the second sock done, though, since I'm making a present of these and that always helps motivation.

Yarn

I ordered yarn today. Mainly, I ordered yarn for some projects I'm going to make for my friend Stefanie, who also suggested I try to order from Angel Yarns. Which I did. Hopefully, the order will come soon, because I'm itching to get started on those things for Stefanie.

I ordered yarn, also, for the Icarus shawl, but more and more, I'm not sure I'll keep it if/when it's done. I'm not exactly a shawl person. I just want to test myself with a bigger, scarier project. So, if it gets done by Christmas (which I'm not sure it will, the pattern is scary!), someone might get a nice present.

Anyway, yarn. The confirmation mail said it will get dispatched within 2 working days, so the package probably won't be here until sometime next week.

Patience, patience. I have plenty of stuff in my stash, not to mention a couple of projects already on needles.

FO: Santa Cruz Hat

Hey look. The Santa Cruz hat turned out alright. I really don't much like knitting hats in the round, mostly because of the fiddling around with dpns at the crown decreases, but sometimes they turn out nicer than hats knitted flat. The picture's a bit blurry. Sorry about that. Well, it's 3:30 in the morning. I suppose I should be getting to bed...

WIP: Santa Cruz Hat

I got a little sick of the endless knitting of a shawl and the pointy dpns of sock knitting, so I dug into my stash and found a skein of Garnstudio's Karisma to make a hat. I decided on the Santa Cruz, because it's kind of cute, but I dropped a stitch on the fourth or fifth row, and I was too lazy to frog it, so the pattern of the lace/cable seems to be coming out kind of funky. Oh well, call it unique, eh?

Here's a terrible picture to show the result so far. It's to be noted that I usually don't use flash to take photos, but I don't have proper lighting other than daylight and it's thirty minutes to midnight now.

Charts! Oh noes!

Alright, I've studied the Icarus shawl pattern. And to my utter shock, I see that it's based on charts. So it looks like I'm going to have to learn how to knit from charts. This should be a Good Thing, right? Still scares me silly, though.

Interweave Knits

I just got my Interweave Knits, Summer 2006, which I bought for one reason and one reason only. I want to do the Icarus shawl. Trouble is, it will be a while before I can afford the yarn for it. Bugger. And I also have a few projects I need to do before starting this. But now I have it and I've seen a few other projects in the mag that I also want to do. So all is good. I just need to have a bit of patience.

And I made this blog so I can link it to my Ravelry account, which is the most awesome place to appear on the web lately.

So, here it is. My knitting blog. Whoop!