It’s been an interesting week, I’ve been casting on EVEN more things, so my ‘works in progress’ total is back to seven projects…

My first mitten is complete! I have the second one to go, but I’m getting distracted…

I did enjoy making this, and I learnt how to catch floats! I feel much more confident about doing fair-isle knitting now.

The next Seven Skeins club projects/s is/are a pair of fingerless mitts… which have not been cast-on despite my fearlessness last week. When it came to the crunch, I thought I might wait and see what the next project is and go from there.

This week I cast-on a much loved and anticipated project, my Watermelon socks. This yarn is hand-dyed by Abi Grosso and it’s just plain beautiful. It makes me so happy to knit with this yarn. This is also my only mindless project on the needles at the moment, so I’m savouring it a little. At the Richmond Knitters knit night this week, I got rather excited when I got around to my second repeat of ‘pips’ and the second round matched up with a couple of pips, oh the excitement! Abi is a genius!

And because there is so much love for this yarn, there is two photos of virtually the same thing.

I’ve decided to do the cuff, heel and toes in some left-over Wollmeise. Checking out the Rav projects with this yarn, I preferred the heel in particular being a solid colour rather than the pattern continuing through. By using an alternative yarn for the cuff, heel and toes this also means I could just about get 2 pairs out of this yummy yarn.

And then, because it’s just ticked over to November, I’ve joined the Brioche-along with Louisa from the Richmond Knitters. I’d decided to knit the Askews Me Hat by Stephen West, in my handspun yarn. Which sounded great in theory…

But then after I got something that looked like a cowl instead of a hat, I chose a more lighter weight yarn and went down a needle size.

As I was knitting it the second time, I was still getting odd stitches at the start and end of rows and around the decrease and increase sections. I couldn’t work out what I was doing wrong, and the pattern was not giving me any clues, it just recommends taking a Craftsy class with Nancy Marchant. When I’ve paid A$8.57 I kind of expect more from a stand alone hat pattern. I am a little disappointed and my project is now in the naughty corner. I don’t think I’ve ever had a project confined to this place before. Learning new things can be trying… I already have the Craftsy class mentioned, but I think it’s a little unfair to not provide clear instruction in the first place  or to provide a pattern that is free from errors (I’m not sure which it is yet), or to expect people to purchase further resources to understand your instructions after they’ve purchased your pattern. There I said it.

Maybe it will make sense tomorrow.

Just a little housekeeping:

Thanks for all the comments lately, it’s nice to be reminded someone is out there reading my blog.

Also the Louisa Harding Shingle is on it’s way to Noemie who was the first commenter on the blog about the Shingle going to a good home. I can’t wait to see what it becomes!