Finished, finished.

I'm finally at that part of starting a lot of things at once where I'm starting to finish all of those things. Slowly, but they're getting done. The supposedly ill-fated Noro cardigan is too huge to sit on my lap for long periods of time, so the collar might have to wait a while. The puff-sleeved cardigan from Fitted Knits is just waiting for that last ball of the right dye lot that I found through Ravelry (I'm saintraoul there, go friend me!) because Knit Picks didn't have any left, and Mesilla?



Done!



Done.

I hate the yarn, Mission Falls Cotton. I think I mentioned this once before, but it was so stiff and troublesome and I had an impossible time with gauge. It was fine when I started, but as I got used to the yarn and worked with it more, my fingers got lazy, so my ending gauge is looser. It still needs a proper steam-blocking. I do love the finished product though, the yarn, despite my misgivings, ends up very nice.

Modifications I knowingly made were with the picot edging and the contrast colours; I knew I wouldn't wear it if it had a picot edging. I'm just not a picot kind of girl. So I did two rows of reverse stockinette and then bound off in purl on the right side, like EZ always says. With the contrast colours, it was my own mistake. I didn't buy a third colour, but I bought too much of one of the others. I forget if I did this on purpose or not. Modifications I unknowingly made were with the neckline; I didn't pick up enough stitches along the sides so my decreases made for a tighter neckline. That's just fine though, I'm more likely to wear it if it shows off less chest.

The pattern was wonderful, like all of Stefanie's patterns. Well written and easy to follow. I saw some sniping about it on other blogs, mostly about the neckline instructions not having exact numbers, but I liked it that way; even when a pattern says "pick up and knit x number of stitches" I almost never find I have x number of stitches and this causes me a lot of headache. I'd much rather have instructions like "pick up one stitch for every cast on stitch across the row and two for every three rows across the front" or whatever. So, great pattern, I love it.

I made another slouch hat too, at OoTP. Theatre was packed, and I had the good fortune to sit next to a pack of fresh from high school fangirls. Now, please understand, I am the most flailing of all fangirls, about nearly everything I like. I was also super-excited about the movie! A lot! But don't spent ten minutes talking about how excited you are for the movie, and then spend the first five minutes of the actual movie talking about boyfriends. Or talking at all. And stop squealing whenever Ron is on screen, lest I start squealing every time Snape is visible (Oh Alan Rickman. You deserve more screen time). I swear, if I didn't have my hat to knit on, I would have gone insane and stabbed them.

And another thing, while I'm up on my soap-box. There was a woman in front of me with her very young boy. Probably four or five. Have you read the book? I was hardly surprised when he cowered in fear from basically the first minute on, and halfway through, ended up in her lap. Gee, who knew it was scary!

Everyone who read the book, ever.

Aaand I'm done.

Mysteriousness and sweat.

Our air conditioning broke. I know there are plenty of people in the world without air conditioning. I know they live quite comfortably and well without, but I cannot. For two days, there was a fan blowing in the living room, and I barely slept. I couldn't sleep without my window open, but directly across the street is a school, a school that they're putting an addition on to! Yesterday, after the air conditioning was fixed, I managed a very strange 11am-8pm slumber. Hence the 6am blogging.

Of course, all that fan blowing meant I didn't get much done on the mystery stole, because the chart kept blowing away, but here's where I am.



Just finished chart A without a single error, and swelled with pride, I moved on to chart B. And I messed up one row big time. I tried to rip back, and I can never tink lace. So my stitch count was off. I forged on though, hoping it won't look too bad. It took two chart rows before my stitch count was back on target, but I am a little discouraged. Kitty, however, doesn't care.



Though she did join me on the table for the picture taking extravaganza. Unblocked lace, ironically, looks a lot like cat barf.

So, to combat that, I decided to make a cute little slouchy hat, specifically Le Slouch by Wendy Bernard. I started it thinking it would carry me through a 7pm screening of Order of the Phoenix later tonight, but, four hours after casting on...



I had myself a hat.



The cutest little hat I ever did make! I originally saw it in some dark purple Cotton Fleece I know I have somewhere, but I couldn't find it, so I opted for some Manos Del Uruguay I've had for at least three years. It was to be a felted purse, but I frogged it, having no use for a felted purse.



The pattern calls for 200 yards of a worsted weight, but I only had 135, so instead of knitting plain for six inches, I did five. I could have gone to six though. I have a not-so-tiny ball of yarn left that may or may not become some kind of embellishment. I also modified the decrease a bit for a typical beret point. The best part is that I can tuck all my hair up underneath, and it stays put!



I say all my hair, but I don't have a lot. I'm used to having much less, so when it gets to a certain length, specifically this one, just above my shoulders, I get annoyed and wear it up or in a cotton snood most of the time. I am trying to grow it out though. For reals. But I love my hat.



I love. my hat.