Catchin' Up

Well, once again it's been awhile, and although I compose posts in my head every few hours, they never seem to make it that final step onto the internets. I have a finished object for you, which was actually finished weeks ago and was awaiting its photo shoot. I present a finished Multidirectional Scarf, which is a Christmas present for an undisclosed recipient.

Project Stats: Multidirectional Scarf
Pattern: From here.
Yarn: 3.25 skeins of Noro Silk Garden, colorway 206. The colors are a bit more accurate in the photos in this post.
Needles: Clover bamboo, size 8 straights
Time to knit: I don't really remember. Not that long, by my standards. Less than a month, surely.
Modifications: None. The pattern was very clear and well-written.
Impressions: I needed more yarn than expected/called for, but that might have been my fault for erring on the small side with the needles on top of being a tight knitter. I'm not overly thrilled with this colorway, which turned out to have much more black and brown than advertised. This is what happens when you get the yarn from Ebay, especially if it's Noro, as I'm discussed previously. This was one of those projects that seems to be taking forever to get anywhere, and then you look at it and realize it's 4 feet long. The whole scarf is short-rows, hence the multidirectional triangles, but it's super easy once you get going. I'd recommend it as a good project for any sort of self-striping yarn. As for the yarn, I do like Silk Garden. It's softer than Kureyon and thus better (I'd say) for close-to-the-body knits, like scarfs. We'll see how the recipient feels about that...

I've also made significant progress on my grandmother's Christmas socks, which I realize I haven't shown at all. These are the Embossed Leave socks from Interweave Knits, Winter 2005, knit with Socks that Rock mediumweight in Beryl. I'm in the middle of the gusset decreases and then I'll just be cruising down the foot. It took me awhile to really get going on these because I had some trouble adjusting to the super heavy sharp Knit Picks DPNs. I've discovered that I have to be wearing something thick, like a fleece sweatshirt to knit with these babies. I prop my working needle (right hand) on my stomach when I knit, so if I wear anything thin I get little poke marks all over myself, which is both uncomfortable and unattractive. Plus these needles are heavy. I had read that on several people's blogs, so I was expecting it (especially compared to my standard short (5") birch DPNs), but it still took some getting used to. I've tried this sock on, and I think it should fit. It's a bit larger than ideal perhaps, but going down a needle size would've been murder on the hands and I suspect it'll be just fine.