Sick knitting

It's what I did when I had to stay home from work for a couple days last week. I had a pretty vicious cold, which is mostly gone now, having taken my voice with it. Right now I sound a little like a cross between Lauren Hutton and Joe Cocker.

Anyway, when I wasn't sleeping off the fever or coughing my head off, I was working on a fast, fun infinity scarf that I saw in the current Amirisu magazine. The Walnut Snood seemed like an ideal project because I had a natural-colored bulky-weight yarn in my stash, so all I had to do was buy the pattern and I'd be off.

After the provisional cast-on, I got started on the cable chart, which knits up fast, especially since it's bulky yarn and size 10 needles. So different from my usual sock knitting! Once I got going, it was easy to keep going, although I started getting bored after about the seventh chart repeat. I eventually completed all 11 repeats and was able to wash and block the scarf this weekend. It ended up being a little longer than the pattern's 67-inch length, but I think it will be fine for winding around my neck once it gets cold again. (It's 48 degrees F today.)

Well, that's all I have for today. Until next time, Friends.

You win some, you lose some.

Today was a mixed bag for my knitting. Early in the day, I decided that it was time to felt all the parts for the Hydrangea bag. I re-read the instructions a couple times, and once I felt like I had a handle on the concept, I threw caution to the wind and threw all that knitting into the washer. I checked it every so often, like the instructions said, and it actually turned out well. The flowers themselves could have gone a little longer, but I wasn't taking any chances on going too far.

Once I emptied the washer, I set to stuffing the bag so it would dry in the correct shape and I laid out all the flowers and turned up all the petals so they would dry nicely too. Everything is on the dining table and I'll give it a couple days to dry. I just hope the wet wool smell is gone by the time I get home from work tomorrow. I can comfortably call the felting a win.

I also made a little more progress on the Owl hat, having completed the ribbing around the face and the little talons as well. I made the ribbing a little longer than called for in the pattern, since I felt like it needed just a touch more around the face. I also changed how I did the talons; instead of following the designer's instructions, I used an i-cord technique that made a little more sense to me. The talons are also a win.

As for the "lose some" part of the title to today's post, I had all kinds of frustration with my Glacier gloves. And it was all my own damned fault. Sometimes I just overthink things, and tonight was one of those nights. I was working on the gloves and found that I was short one stitch midway through the round. So I un-knit that half of the round, then un-knit the previous round, because I thought I might have accidentally knit two stitches together. After all the un-knitting, I counted my stitches, and counted them again. As I had the right number both times, I decided that it was safe for me to re-knit the round and then re-knit the half round where I'd lost that stitch. When I got there, I was missing the same stinking stitch! I thought I'd die. But it turns out I wasn't missing that stitch after all. I was reading the wrong round of the chart. I was never missing a stitch. The Whole Damned Time. It took me two hours to figure this out and the whole thing was an exercise in futility. I'm sure there's a lesson to be learned here, but I think I'm immune to it just now. Tomorrow's a new day, as they say.

That's all I have for tonight. I'm going to set my knitting aside for tonight and hope for better tomorrow. Until next time, Friends.