An FO For You

In Progress: Two WIPs for you today, both of which I mentioned last time. First is my Charade socks in blue mix. I'd thought that it was variegated, however it's actually self-striping, like the green mix! I like it though, and some of the blues are just gorgeous! As far as the yarn with this pattern, it's great, I don't think there's much that wouldn't work with this pattern. The stripes don't match, and they're actually in the opposite order on each foot, because I'm working with yarn from both ends of the original ball; I don't mind at all.
While I was winding the yarn into two balls and admiring the colours, I did get a bit of an unwelcome surprise, when I ran into a random join 10 g into it. The joined yarn didn't match, so I just cut the 10 g ball off and set it aside; I figure that I'll just join it in on the second pair I make from this yarn. Maybe I can get it to match too.
I did my sock math last night for the heel and gusset, and I was surprised to find that my row gauge is the same on this pair as my last pair (same needle)... until I remembered that row gauge doesn't change like stitch gauge. Remembering that in the future should make the sock math a bit easier. Just a few more inches to go before the gusset!

The other WIP is my Annis shawl. I cast on yesterday morning, with the twisted loop. It was very fast to cast on all 363 stitches, but I made it way to tight, and couldn't even move the stitches back onto the needles for unraveling. I had to undo each stitch by hand from the wire of my circulars. Two hours had passed now. Next I tried a knitted cast on using a crochet hook (I used my 6.5 mm needles and 5 mm hook), where you chain one between each stitch on the needle. It was a little fiddly at first, and much slower going, but very worth it in the end! It is definitely stretchy enough for me to make points when I block it; the pattern has already formed little points. I did a straight purl row after the cast on with the 6.5 mm needles, and then switched to 6 mm needles for the chart. I'll have to see when this is done, but right now I think if  I were to make this again (with similar yarn), I would use 5.5 mm needles. However, I still like how it's turned out so far, and I do want it to be a little larger. I also don't know if the larger needle for that cast on was totally necessary, it's pretty stretchy!
I am using Toho 6/0 beads I got from Michael's, in blue rainbow and matte blue/green. The blue/green ones are between yo's that make a ladder-y thing, and the rainbows are on the s2kp decreases to the points and where the nupps would be. I'd originally planned this the other way around, but consideration and conference on the matter with my mom and grandma convinced me to switch it, and I'm glad I did! I'm also adding the beads on the purl rows before I purl the stitches, which is new to me. Previously I added the beads on the knit side after I knit the stitch. I think they end up looking similar, but I did see a comparison once that showed that adding on the purl side makes it neater within stockinette, and I figured that I should become comfortable adding them this way as well. 
Currently, I'm done 6 rows of the chart, so I've still got 12 more to go. 

Finished Object: When I hit the button to compose this post, I had no FO's to show this week. But then I started thinking about the penguin, which has been waiting for more than a week now for his flippers and feet, so I sewed him all up and took some pictures. Now I have an FO to show you, and I no longer have to worry about the poor little guy languishing in my project bag as an amputee. Man, he is so cute, I kinda want to keep him myself! But I have enough little knitted things of my own, and I know he'll be appreciated with my aunt. Until we go visit though, he can hang out on my bed with the other knitted critters, rather than in the closet with the macarons.

Stash/Future Knitting: When I first joined Ravelry, I saw the Haruni shawl. I saw this shawl, and I told myself that one day I would have the knitting skills to make it. So while we were in Florida, and I had all sorts of LYS's on my list to go to, I helped myself shop a bit beforehand by writing out things I wanted to knit, seeing what people made them in, and what yardages/how many skeins they needed to do it. Haruni was one of the first items on my list. I got my first Dream In Color yarn, and it's Smooshy with Cashmere, two skeins for my Haruni. The colour is called Global Mix. Looking at it in the skein it looks almost too variegated to be made into a lace shawl like that, but I looked at it knit up on Ravelry, and it knits up as a tonal yarn. It's just so soft and luxurious and smooshy!

It's so smooshy!

Catch Up: I live in Canada, and it gets cold. I live near the Great Lakes, and it gets wet and cold. For the really windy, cold times, covering your face is a good idea, and besides a balaclava, I wasn't sure how the best way to accomplish this was. Then I found cowls. I still can't really keep it up over my mouth and nose, if I want to be able to see where I'm going (my breath fogs up my glasses!), but it doesn't bulk up your coat like a scarf, and is easier to pull up over your face if needed. I made two, in Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick and Quick, one for myself in the fig colourway (and matching, lighter buttons), and one for my grandma in sky blue with brown buttons. I made mine a little larger around for my thicker hair, and I added matching ribbing to the top, so I needed just over one ball's worth. For my grandma's, I'd forgotten that I increased the stitch count, so her's used less than one ball. Luckily she has very short hair, and is all around smaller than I am, so it fits her perfectly! I can't take all the credit for these cowls, though, as my mom very kindly sewed the buttons on for me. 

I also crocheted some little things around this time, about November last year. I made some poppies for Remembrance Day. We used safety pins to secure them on, which means you won't lose the poppy after a day of wearing it, and they can be re-worn in following years! I also made up a few of the red parts separately, as my cat's love of the poppies you get around that time of year also extends to the ones I made! For the commercial poppies, I usually take out the black felt part and the pin (of course!) and let him have the red part. Now that I know he loves the red poppy I make too, he can have them year-round!

Other: I really want to get back to working on my Annis, so this section will be short. However, this is a knitting tip that I found online that has become invaluable. In knitting, at various times, you'll come across instructions to slip stitches. This may be for a slip-stitch pattern, or part of the instruction to s2kp (slip 2, knit 1, and pass the slipped stitches over) or other similar decreases, or even in some short-row techniques. When I first came across the instruction, the pattern specified purl-wise or knit-wise. It didn't take long though for me to run into patterns where this wasn't specified. I googled which way I should slip the stitch, and most of what I found was for a specific application or the answer was debated. Then I found this simple rule of thumb which I will share with you now:

When it's part of a decrease, slip it knit-wise; if not, slip it purl-wise.

(Unless otherwise stated in the pattern!)

This little tidbit has not yet led me astray, and I continue to refer back to it in my mind when any question of which way I should be slipping the stitch comes up. The idea behind it is that when you're slipping for, say, a slip-stitch pattern, you don't want to twist the stitch, so you slip it purl-wise. For decreases you want to slip them knit-wise, and you're decreasing them away anyways. 

Well, I'm going to go work on that shawl. 
I won't be posting again until next weekend, so let me just say:
Happy Canada Day to my countrymen, and happy Independence Day to my American neighbours to the south!

And as always, Happy Crafting to all!