Yarn store adventures!

First of all, a scarf update. This is how it looks at the moment:



It's about 3 1/3 feet long. I'm in the middle of the thirteenth repeat. Probably only a few more (seven at absolute most) and I'll be done. I'd better look into getting some blocking wires (it's curling up awfully)!


In (IMO) much more exiting news, I went to a yarn store a few days ago! I chose to go to The Knitting Room in Arlington, MA, since a friend needed a ride into the city (it's a ways away and her car had broken) anyway. The store was nice. It was quite small, but given that it could offer a rather limited set of yarns it carried a decent variety in terms of weight, fiber content, color, etc.

I got:


(the second picture is an attempt to better represent the color of the yarn, which is really a magenta -- the first picture is too washed-out and pink, the second too red)

This yarn is for making Tasha from Knitty. (I also picked up size 5 and 6 circs to make this project.) I am kind of shocked at myself for getting a yarn that's even remotely pinkish, but whatever. I like it.

Because it was on sale, I also got:



I have no idea what I'm going to use it for, but it's purty.

Yay for yarn stores!

Progress!

I think I'm working on the fifth or sixth repeat of the cable part of the scarf. (Can't say for sure; it's downstairs, and the dog is sleeping, so I can't go down there tonight.) I've been sitting for thirty minutes to two hours at a time, knitting while watching TV with Dad and sometimes other family members. I only got the chance to do that a few days this week, but it's added up. I'll try for a picture next week, if I remember (is it New Year's Eve next Sunday? ...maybe no post from me till two weeks from now, then...). It seems to be going so fast -- big yarn and big needles and only something like 30 sts/row seem to knit up amazingly quickly after the armwarmers. But I've still got at least two-thirds, probably more like three-quarters or four-fifths, of the scarf to go. It's maybe nine inches or a foot long.

Cables are still scarily easy. And it's getting easy for me to read my knitting with this scarf -- I still check the pattern, but I can usually see what should come next without checking.

Guess what I did?

Ta da!

YAY!

Pattern: Dragon Scale Gauntlets

Yarn/Needles: Plymouth Encore D.K., color 425, something under 2 50-g skeins, on size 6 DPNs

Time: Three and a half months (but not much knitting got done for the first few weeks).

Modifications: Cast on four (?) more stitches than the pattern dictated. Nine rows of ribbing at the top rather than six.

Techniques learned: knitting in the round, knitting on DPNs, m1, ssk/k2tog, sewn BO (which I LOVE LOVE LOVE!), following a chart, tinking (I dropped stitches at one point and had to go back twelve rows to fix it...)


Notes: Did I mention that I LOVE the sewn bind-off? So easy (if a bit time-consuming), so good-looking, so stretchy!

The pattern was pretty easy to follow once I figured out a couple of the more confusing directions (thanks to help from folks on LJ!). I thought that working back and forth for one chart repeat to create the thumbhole was a neat trick.

These are so comfortable and warm! My only gripe is that my row gauge changed during the course of the project, so one of them is shorter than the other. But ah well. It gives them character, right? ;) I definitely want to knit these again, only paying more attention to gauge (maybe do both at once?), and using a yarn that will actually show off the stitch pattern better -- it's visible on these, but not really from a distance.

I got wonderful help at various stages from several different people on the knitting LJ community and am so thankful for it!

All of my pictures relating to this project can be found here.

And aw, heck, just a couple more in the post for good measure:

Of course, I've already cast on for something else -- the Ropes and Ladders Scarf, sans ladders (I didn't like how they looked in my swatch). It's my first time doing cables, and I was blown away by how easy they are!

I am using this yarn:

It is some sort of wool/acrylic blend on a cone. No idea what. I got it from my summer roomate. Whatever it is, it's wonderfully soft, very fun to knit with except that it's a loose single ply so it's kind of splitty/fibrous. It's probably worsted weight or so on the cone, but when it comes off it poofs up a bit so it's probably one and a half to two times as thick.

Here's how the scarf looked earlier today:



Since that picture was taken, I knitted another repeat. I really hope that the yarn is woolly enough to block well, since the stockinette sections bordering the cable are curling. We'll see...

(crossposted to the knitting LJ community)

WAY WAY WAY busy -- so this will be brief.

No pics still -- no damn time to upload them. (I don't even really have the time to be making this post.)

I've finished row 7 of the 7th pattern rep. Chart is 11 1/2"ish in length, ribbing 11 5/8". So 28 rows, 4"ish in the past week.

I think that this one is coming out shorter than the other. It's really frustrating. I may have to knit more chart rows before starting the thumbhole so that they come out even.