It's Done!?

My first finished afghan!

Yep, it's done! I finished the last border for the 2012 Bernat Mystery Afghan yesterday. 
It's very soft, and comfortable, and I'm sure it's quite warm too. I wrapped it around my shoulders long enough for a picture, but that was it in this >90°F weather!
Once the squares had all been put together, I was actually pretty happy with the colours. When I had the left and right borders on, I wasn't so sure about the border colour. But now with the top and bottom borders done as well, I think it fits in really well, and I'm quite pleased!
I have noticed that the "light" blocking I'd done on the left and right borders didn't really stick, but I think I'll prefer the somewhat creased/folding borders to flat ones if I'd really flattened them out to get rid of the crease. 
And somehow, on the last border I did in seed stitch, I managed to get one less stitch, and ended up with an even number. You can't tell, I just had to write down which rows had to start with a purl instead of a knit. 

Here it is again <3

So, now that that one's done, I've picked back up my clue 1 squares for the 2009 KAL. As I'd posted before, the blue clue 1 square is done, I finished off the yellow one today, and I've started on the pink one. 
I'm excited that there aren't any more clues that have "knit the knits and purl the purls", as that can be a little annoying to figure out every other row. I'm not so excited that clues 2 and 3 only involve more knit and purl stitches. At least clue 4 adds in Sl3, which I haven't done before. 


I've got a bit of a shopping list to take care of for knitting supplies. I've got to get a 32" circular needle for the borders of this afghan, for which all 4 sides are pick up and knit (ughhh). They want a 4.5mm one, and I think I'd like a 5.5mm as well. And then there's 5.5mm needles for normal knitting, as I think with my gauge, that will be in the place of 5mm. The circular needles I think will be metal or plastic. I don't plan to use them too much, and I'm cheap! The straights will be Clover bamboo again though. And, I'd like some dpns (double pointed needles). I think they'd be good to learn about now, and there's a thread about knitting socks on the Bernat forums that I can use to learn, as well as a cute Ravelry pattern that says it's good for learning and practicing with the dpns. Hmm, maybe I should call my grandmother up and see if she's got any supplies I can borrow. If I buy the dpns, they'll probably be bamboo as well. I can just imagine how easily stitches would slip off of those!


On the crocheting front, I haven't made anything new, but I may make a cup cozy from a CAL on the Bernat forums. The only thing is it says to hold two strands of yarn at once, and not only have I never done that before, but I only have one ball of each yarn... not sure how that'd work!
The cat made my decision for me about that sun kissed flower coaster I made. I wasn't awake for it, but my mom told me about how hard the cat worked at getting that coaster this morning. It was between my mom's larger pink flower coaster below, and a large container of hand lotion on top. He worked it though, all the while sneaking sly glances at my mom, knowing he was doing something bad, and eventually got it out! She saved it, but we decided to give it to him, since he loves it so much... maybe the colours catch his eye! Now I just need to figure out where she put it for safe keeping!


Finally, I just remembered that I learned something new for use in knitting and crochet. It's how to use skeins of yarn without unraveling them and then rolling them into balls. In the past (years ago), I'd tried to pull yarn from the middle of a skein, but it ended up getting horribly knotted, which led to me drawing the conclusion that you weren't supposed to be able to use them like that. But in looking online I found videos and posts about doing just that! So when I went to roll my last ball of Bernat Waverly Aqua Frost for the top and bottom borders of my afghan, I stopped and tried to pull the yarn from the inside. It worked great! I just read that you have to pull the outer strand out as well or it will knot. I've done the same thing with 3 more skeins of yarn since. I did try for one other, the sun kissed Lily Sugar'n Cream actually, but for that one, I pulled all the yarn guts out of the middle, and still couldn't find the end. Eventually I stuffed it back into the skein and just used the yarn from the outside. I quite enjoy using the yarn from the inside now though, and I plan to do this for all future skeins of yarn I use... when it works! ;)


Things I learned:

• how to pull yarn from the center of skeins without specially unraveling and re-rolling it
• how awesome my new afghan is
• the sense of accomplishment from finishing my first big knitting project