Now that's more like it

I finished a baby blanket a couple of days ago, and washed it last night. I was more or less ambivalent towards it before I washed it, but afterward? My goodness. it's nice. It's just a basic knit/purl pattern, but in such a way that one is in a pattern against the other so that they make the shapes of bears. Washing it really made the bears pop out more like they should, I think. Confused by what I mean? Here, let me show you!

Well, first, this is what I started out with:

That would be two skeins of lots of yarn. A pound each - 1020 yards. I made one into a center-pull ball (quite a beautiful one, which I have yet to be able to replicate well) because I couldn't find the end of yarn that normally pulls from the center of store-bought skeins like that. I ended up pulling out a huge chunk of yarn from the center, and just couldn't find it, and it was messy, so I just took the one on the outside and turned it into a ball. It took like two hours, though, so since I pretty easily found the inner end of the yarn on the other skein, I didn't bother balling that one. It is quite a space-saver, though!

Anyway. Here's the finished result, pre-washing:

Not too bad, I suppose. But it looks a lot more polished post-washing:

(The hat is also going to my friend who's getting this blanket. It's one of my older baby hats that I just happened to come across a couple of weeks ago. Since she's having a boy, I figured, hey, might as well give it to someone! But, like all baby items I make, I don't know if it's the right size or anything. Oh well.)

Last week, I also made my first real alpaca item, which I've worn...a lot since then. I love it.

Anyway. It's pretty basic, but it's so warm, and so so so soft. And I kind of love that it has a hint of the smell of animal. Maybe I'm just making that up, but oh well. I like it. (Of course, this coming from the girl who has been known to "crave" the smell of manure at least a few times while I've been in DC. I like farms.)

Last night, I also cast on a new project - probably my most challenging to date. It's sort of a lacy shawl. I'm using this yarn that's part bamboo blend! Pretty excited about that. (Also, ignoring the fact that I literally have at least five projects on needles right now. But, you know, different situations call for different projects! I'll be finishing at least one of them today, too, so that's good. Of course, I'll probably just turn around and start another one, but whatever. :-P )

Well. Now it's off to send a couple items to their new owners!

I take it all back

You guys, it's finished. The edge has been undone and redone. (The whole blanket was knit with size 10 needles; I ended up doing the edge row in size 15 needles. And it worked beautifully.)

It can now be packaged up and sent off to its new owners, and fulfill its blankety destiny in whatever way they see fit. It's about 64" in diameter, all told. (If I hold it up to the top of my head, the other side hits the floor, so it's even wider than 64" if it's stretched a bit.) It'd probably look better on a bed, but I have not an appropriate bed for this sort of thing. (It's a twin. And pushed up against the wall. This blanket wants a bigger bed, I think.)

I hope the recipients like it. And I hope they don't tell me if they don't. :-) All I know is, I'm quite satisfied, and feeling a lot better about life than I did last night. Sometimes it's worth it to put in several more hours of work on something that's finished but not up to standards. Anything worth doing is worth doing well, right?

Mmm. I love finished products. (Except when they're disappointing finished products...)

Catching up

I went and changed blogs on you people. (Of course, I'm not even sure anyone's bothered to read this before anyway. Haha. Oh well.) Ahhh, it's so fun though.

So. Pictures!

 Monica's afghan. Not sure how I feel about the size, but oh well. It's a pattern called Twilight from my Quick Knit Afghan book (chosen specifically because the recipient happens to be something of a fan of the Twilight series...but thankfully not a crazy fan. Haha. Not sure if I could be friends with her if she were.)

Baby hat! Mock Cables Baby Hat. I added a pom pom (my first time making one!), and I like how it turned out. I washed it after taking this picture, and it looked a little more settled after that. (And hopefully it looks better on a real baby instead of my small Dolly, the only relatively baby-sized thing I had on which to model the hat...)

Fresh Picked Baby Hat. Suuuuper cute. Quite enjoyable.

I'm not sure how well they fit a baby's head, since I'm not really knowledgeable in that area, but hopefully they'll fit ok. The purple one is quite stretchy, so it's probably pretty adaptable. But, what do I know.

Oh man, I loooove this blanket. Pinwheel Baby Blanket. Super easy pattern, lovely to knit, and I loved the patterns that the multi-colored yarn made throughout the blanket. Not sure how practical a round blanket is, but it's original, right? Haha. Whatever. I like it.

Dolly graciously agreed once again to model for me, just as a sort of size comparison. Even though she's quite small.

This is not something I knit. Ha. I just bought this yesterday after a trip to the local knitting store in Old Town. I'd seen it before online, and oh how I wanted it. It's a circular needle organizer!

It has tabs on which to write the different sizes, and separates them all, so I don't have to search through a tangled bunch of circulars anymore to look for the one I need! It wasn't very expensive, either, and it's definitely worth it. (I previously had all my circulars in the pocket of a small cosmetics bag, I think, and it was always frustrating to find the needle size I needed. And I pretty much only knit with circulars now, or double pointed needles, so having a good organizer is definitely a good investment.)

One of my current projects. It's a scarf, this one, and I'm trying to decide if I want to keep going or scrap it and start over. There's supposed to be more of a difference between the two different colors that are used (if you look at the original picture, it's a multi lighter blue paired with a dark blue, whereas I'm using a multi green paired with a light green that's the same as one of the greens in the multi, so it doesn't have the same effect). I'm not sure what alternate color I'd use, though, with the multi...I might try dark blue. Not sure how it'd look though. I guess I'll just think about it awhile more.

Oh my gosh I LOOOOOVE knitting. Sigh. I wish I could knit professionally. Except I'm not good enough, and I'd probably have to learn how to design my own patterns, and I'm not sure I'm creative enough for that. I'm a follower, not a leader (or creator, as the case may be). Oh well. I'm going to order a Swift bag today, and I'm so. excited for it. I hope it doesn't disappoint. That's what worries me about things I wait on and think a lot about before taking the plunge - I build them up so much in my head that they're bound to disappoint, right? Oh well. I think I've researched enough to know that it'll probably work out well. I don't normally spend that much on anything (other than, say, trips to the grocery store, or airplane tickets), but I know it'll last me awhile and it'll be a good investment. I just still can't decide whether I should have it shipped to work or to my old place of residence. My former roommate said it'd be fine if I did that, but if I ship it to work I'll get it sooner. :-) Anyway. We'll see.

Gosh. I would spend all my money on knitting stuff if I could. Yarn, needles, bags, books, tools, etc. Maybe someday. I love knitting so much. SO much. Oh well.