Instant gratification girl

Sometimes you just need to knit something quickly, you know? Like, you've been slogging away on Soleil, slogging away on a sock (Jaywalker, yes, I caved and joined the masses), slogging away on a scarf for a Christmas gift, and you just want something quick, painless, done in a few hours. I got this GORGEOUS handspun from a seller on etsy (yes, I spin my own yarn - but I am addicted to other people's handspun. Market research. Yeah, that's it, not a ridiculous weakness for pretty things), and decided it needed to be a chunky hat. Hey, it's getting chilly around here at night (ignore the fact that it's supposed to be almost 80 today - when can I pack my summer stuff away?!?! December?!?! There isn't enough room in our bedroom for summer and fall clothing to cohabitate, you know?) Anyhoo, here it is, instant gratification! The pattern is here - yes, it's cabled, yes, I realize you can't see the cables because of the yummy yarn, but I wanted something that would keep me interested, and a simple cable pattern did it! Plus, the yarn I had worked PERFECTLY! The yarn is called "Seaspray" from here. And I LOVE scarves, but really HATE knitting them. So I found a way to make it less painful. I took a whole bunch of mini skeins that other spinners included as samples with yarns I've bought, tied them all together at random, and started knitting. It was actually supposed to be a scarf for my daughter (because if it came out looking a little too wacky for me, a 2.5 year old girl is a great recipient!) but 1) I made it too wide for her and b) I really freakin' like it! So it's MINE. And I'll just have to knit another one up for her. It is really a fun way to knit a scarf, because you just power through it to see what the next color will be, and how it will look against what you just knit up. It's just a simple garter stitch scarf, but I think it looks pretty cool. I love how, even though all I did was knot the yarns together as I picked them out of the pile, it worked out that almost every color change happens at an end - so no little taggies sticking out, which wouldn't have bothered me too much, but it's still nice to not have them. I ALSO have a pair of fingerless mitts knit up, the lace-up ones from "Alterknits". I knit them out of one of the first skeins of handspun I'd ever bought, back when I first learned about spinning and handspun yarn. They're fraternal twins, a lot like Trekking socks! They were a nice, quick knit, even though I had to frog the first one after getting all the way up to the thumb gusset, because I knit the medium size thinking my hands were bigger than they are. So frog frog frog, reknit, and there they are! And here are the Jaywalkers, knit in "Hester" sock yarn by Pippikneesocks (SO FREAKIN' PRETTY!) This pic is older, I'm actually about 3/4 of an inch away from the heel, but just haven't taken an updated pic. I'm knitting them on one 12" Addi Turbo circ. Colleen mentioned how well it works for the leg of the sock, switching to 2 circs or DPNs when you do the heel and again at the toe decreases. It does work, but I don't think I'd want to do it for a more complicated pattern - I can see how you'd fly through stockinette or even ribbed socks, but anything with a lot more increases and decreases than Jaywalker could be tedious. And painful. I'm definitely forcing the stitches around the needle, and pushing on the size 1 needle tips gets painful, so I don't knit too much at once. Still, it's moving along, and it's less fiddly than DPNs. Still doesn't solve second sock syndrome, which is my biggest problem with socks, but I will learn to knit 2 socks on 2 circs eventually - oh, yes, I will.

Ok, so this is now DAY THREE of trying to load pics into this post, to no avail. I will have to post pics at another time, I guess...if Blogger ever decides to let me (hmm...maybe this is payback for my bitching about it awhile ago!)