The joys of sharing a house

I really don't care how much people try and claim that quadruplexes or duplexes are separate homes. They so are not. I, currently, live in a duplex. And, while I like my side of it well enough and love the size of my backyard, having a "neighbor" who is a glorified roommate and who is also my landlord can get awkward at times. Such as today. *sighs* He's apparently learning how to play the drums. While I completely applaud this endeavor, as I create drums and am thrilled when people learn a new craft or art....the thump thump thump is going to drive me over that fine line I've been balancing upon between sanity and insanity.

As I sit here, today, working on an unexpected small project for a friend who's been harrassing me for the DNA scarf for several months now, I found myself starting to knit to a beat...and then stumbling as the beat stumbled. Yes, I really do tend to knit to the beat of whatever I'm listening to. It's something I had known about myself but hadn't considered a handicap until today. *grimace*

Add to that the frustration I'm having working with this silk, and I just don't know if this small project is going to be the 'relief' I was hoping it would be. I had planned on using it as a break in the work on the Celtic Circles/Rainbow vest from the SFCKAL. However, I'm wondering how much of a break it will be. I tried talking him out of black, as cabling on black is pretty much a wasted effort, but he's pretty adamant that he wants it black so it will be subtle. Alrighty, then. Black it is. However, the holes in the knitting are a frustration to me.

I hadn't realized how much I count on the fluff factor where wool/alpaca/whatever are concerned. I do a lot of knitting in cotton and it's not nearly as bad as this silk is being. I'm hoping after a little work on it, the silk will relax. I'm using two strands of Silke held together on size 5 needles. It's a little heavier weight than the pattern calls for when doubled, but when I used just one strand on size 5s it was horribly holey, as if I were knitting lace. However, I have to use size 5s to get gauge. The suggested size needles for this yarn are 2-4. I suppose I could go and buy a set of size fours (broke my last straights that size and haven't had a need to replace them) and make this on them. But, then the scarf would be fairly skinny if I work single stranded and double stranded on 4s just won't work. One strand of Silke on size fives was the perfect width. Two strands, it's a little wide, but with the drape it has it seems it would be fine. In this case, I'd rather go a bit wider than narrower.

I'm wondering if I shouldn't just contact KnitPicks and order 4 (or 5) skeins of black Andean Silk. I have 3 here, but the pattern calls for 4 and the likelihood of getting the same dyelot when ordering just one skein is like 1 in a billion.

I dunno. If the silk would relax, this looks like it'd be gorgeous - especially when I was doing it with just one strand. The drape was amazing. It still is really nice, if a bit thicker than I wanted. What do you think? Keep going with 2 strands on 5s? Do it with one strand on 4s or 3s and just let it be narrow? It's for a guy, narrow doesn't seem "masculine" to me for some reason. Or just break down and order another yarn like Andean Silk and find another project for 5 skeins of Silke?