The Marine: Part 2

Well. I finished it in time! YAY!

Beer and yarn. Good combo

I officially finished it about 10 minutes before he called me wanting to come over at nearly midnight just to sit around and be with me (I know, so sweet, right?) I steamed it while waiting for him to drive over and laid it out on the floor to dry. Blocking it added a few inches and allowed the garterstitch border to flatten out rather than completely curl under.

Oh yeah. Duck face is so sexy

It fits him perfectly and he loves it.

As soon as I get some downtime (which seems unlikely with all the beeyotch work I have to do today) I’m going to cast on another in the dark purple Cascade 220 that I have lying around from Seattle. It’s beautiful and will make a great short scarf for me.

I also have a bunch of the green left over- I only needed about a quarter of the new skein and I went on that awesome shopping spree for new 220 paints. So I’ll probably make another scarf out of it. Or a ton of hats. Not sure yet.

Note: I took this picture because I thought it would be an interesting shot. I fell in love with it. Please keep him in your thoughts as he deploys with the US Marine Corps to Afghanistan in October.

Did I seriously just do that?

So the Marine’s scarf is coming along nicely but I realized today that no matter how I spin it, I’m going to run out before I make it to the six feet line. So I’ve been frantically searching online and calling all the yarn shops in the area to no avail. No one had this yarn.

I went on Ravelry and did a simple search for yarns. I found the Cascade 220 page and found a link for sites that sell it. Score! I thought.

Four sites were listed. I checked 3 of them and didn’t find anything concerning the Superwash Paints. Finally, at Angelika’s Yarn Store, I found what I was looking for. The price is twice the amount that I’d pay in a store but, quite frankly, I didn’t care.

I also called the store in Seattle which I originally purchased the yarn seeing as how it was there to begin with so it must still be there. As luck would have it, they e-mailed me saying they had it in stock but in two different dyelots.

Shit.

I immediately ordered the two skeins from Angelika without thinking about dyelots– or thinking whatsoever… I don’t even know if my credit card number was typed correctly the postman was coming to pick up in 45 minutes. I for some reason thought 45 minutes meant 45 seconds so I ordered in a frenzy. I felt a high of adrenaline when I finished ordering.  

Of course, I don’t have the original label with me so I can’t tell the Fiber Gallery in Seattle that I need this specific dyelot and yes, please send it priority so I can get it by Tuesday at the latest. Then I’d have a couple more skeins of pretty green variegated yarn sitting around the house if one turns out to be right and the other ends up being so completely wrong. No harm, no foul, right?

So I’m sitting at work, my heart pounding at the insanely fast purchasing power I have and praying that mom gets home soon so she can find the label and tell me what dyelot I need so I can order it from Seattle.

Either way, I guess we’ll find out if my instincts were right when I get the packages in 2-3 business days.

How to avoid sleeping at work

This scarf probably requires more brain power than I can muster right now but I’m going to knit anyway.

So the Men’s Knits Chunky Cable Scarf from Erika Knight is a dream. I called mom the other day before starting this thing and found out that it requires super chunky 100 percent Merino wool with size 17 needles. SIZE 17!! That’s like kntting with a tree trunk. Not only do I hate knitting with my 17s, I wasn’t ever planning on knitting with super chunky 100 percent Merino wool.

So instead I cast on like I said previously.

I then felt like I mixed up some of the stitches after finishing the third cable. I ripped it out

I cast on the appropriate amount of stitches, didn’t count and restarted. I got to the end of the next row, realized I cast on too many stitches, threw out a couple choice swears and ripped it out.

Then I cast on, triple checked that I cast on 26 stitches (seriously, how could I screw up 26 stitches??) and continued. I got to the cable sets and realized that my garterstitch border looked funky- it didn’t seem to match the picture. I ripped it out

I cast on, made sure I had 26 stitches, got to the third cable again and saw that I wasn’t making the garterstitch border on one side- I then considered altering the pattern to make it a stockinette stitch border but mom told me not to. Either way I hated the way it looked. I ripped it out

I cast on, made sure I had 26 stitches, got to the third cable and did the same thing with the border. I left it thinking it would be my only issue and I was getting really sick of only getting half way through the pattern repeat without actually getting anywhere.

By now it’s become part of the pattern. For some reason, every second cable I screw up and do stockinette on the border of one alternating side. So I’m doing it on purpose now. Oh well. It kind of looks OK…

So that’s the story of the scarf. It’s still where it was the other day as I’ve been spending virtually every waking moment with the Marine. So while I’m at work I’ll be muttering to myself about the stitches I’m working on and what row I’m actually on.

Murphy Brown

One of the last Christmas presents went to my friend Murphy. We first met in ASL 3 over the shared dislike of a girl and have been great friends since.

One thing about Murphy that you all should know: She hates winter and snow and anything concerning cold weather. She also doesn’t dress to the season for the most part during the season (sorry Murph, it’s true though!) so I asked her if she wears hat, mittens or scarves more often. She told me hats so I thought it would be a great opportunity to actually KNIT her a hat.

A couple of days previously I had finished knitting the Portland Tweed Tam and I found that the same idea could be applied to a beanie. So I cast on the appropriate stitches for the hat in my Cascade 220 Brown that I still have a MASS AMOUNT of in my supplies. It was a quick knit and I was done in one night but found that it was a tad short- it didn’t cover my ears which I find to be a pivotal point of need for a hat. What’s the point of a hat if it doesn’t cover your ears??

Instead of ripping it out to the where the first increase was, I added a piece of the ribbing to the bottom of the hat. I did an invisible seam but because of the nature of the yarn and the ribbing, it still has a seam- but it adds to the look of the knitting. I prefer the look with the seam- even though it still needs to stretch out… seams don’t stretch like ribbing does and of course I didn’t account for that.

In any case, Murphy liked it a lot and she finally took a picture of herself in it (With all the cold weather, our hair tends to get all staticky so whenever I see her she’s got her hair up and the hat is nowhere to be seen…)

Hat: Murphy
Pattern: My Own
Yarn: Cascade 220 in Brown
Needles: Size 8 circular and DPN- Bamboo