FO's

So, I'm now moving a bit more freely. I still feel the pinch, but it's not got me crying rivers or cursing like a sailor. Therefore, I deem myself much recouperated.

As promised, here are the projects from last weekend.

First up is the second Harald Watchcap. My son snagged the first, so I had to make a second since this was originally intended to be a gift for my father. I made it out of Cascade Pastaza on size 8US Addi Turbos and Surina size 8US dpns. I like it, even if I did mess up big time and have to rip all the way back to the ribbing when I was almost done. **grimace** The pattern is from Elsebeth Lavold's Viking Patterns for Knitting. There are several very nice patterns in this book. They are well written and very easy to follow. The hardest thing is finding yarn substitutions. Like this pattern. It called for Lord of Aran yarn. Yeah. Not exactly jumping off the shelves, that yarn. Enter a wee bit of digging and contemplating and out comes Cascade Pastaza. I'm happy with the results. Very much so.

Next up is a Dulaan project. Item one of my target 5 items. This is just a simple knit plain hat. I worked it in wool-ease and mohair. I love the halo it has and the mixed effect is really nice. I just hope it's warm enough. Goodness knows that simple things like hats and socks for children knit up fast enough that it's not any real time lost at all on other projects to make one a month or so. My next one will be made with two strands of wool-ease held together. It gets downright frigid there. I think Buddha is modeling it quite nicely.

Then there is the scarf and hat set I knit up for myself. I did this scarf in one morning, flat. Kid you not. If you really like the yarn, you can find more excellent stuff along this line if you keep an eye out on the spinner's blog. As for this particular yarn...it's most improbable that you (or I) could be getting anymore. The Redhead spun it up a couple of years ago for a competition. Both the pink and the beaded white. The woman spins like a dream.
They are 100% angora and a fingering weight. With angora the way it is, I felt a little better by working the white with a strand of Karabella Lace Mohair and the pink was worked with KnitPicks Shimmer FlowerGarden on size 15US. I know. I never use anything large you say. I agree. It felt so absolutely wrong using those needles. But I wanted the big, loopy effect like that and size 15s is what it took to achieve it. Then I was shocked to discover I still had quite a bit of the beaded white left and a whole skein and a half of the pink left. So....I made a partner.

Enter the matching cap. Again, both sections were worked with supporting yarn. I started off with a k2,p2 rib and then stepped it down to a k2,p1 rib over 6.5 inches. I then switched to the pink and knit plain for another 6 inches and then did a simple every other row decrease. I like how it turned out. It's warm, fuzzy and fits perfectly.

I'm now ensconded at work making a wee bit of progress on my Random Log Cabin and the Icarus....twitching to get finished so I can begin Heere Be Dragone....which looks something like this, as you may recall from my previous post: