Okay, your last winter was spent in Minnesota, where the snow didn’t thaw until the last week of April. Your spirit isn’t too shattered as you kind of expected this. Still, you were looking forward to spring, and you don’t really want to go out in the snow. But you have to anyway, so you just sigh and pull out your current favorite knits: practically your only sweater, the hat that you need to photograph but would look funny over your pigtails, and the softest, loveliest scarf you have. If you only had this scarf out of all the ones you brought with you to Europe you’d be fine, and now you kind of wish you had only brought this scarf…

This, everyone, is Unbiased, a pattern I think doesn’t get enough attention at all. Only four projects on Ravelry?! That doesn’t make sense at ALL. (Okay, it probably doesn’t help that I made this out of Malabrigo.) But still, it’s a great scarf, and my professor here loves it and asked if she could have the pattern… heheheh. Knitting professors. :D

Here’s a close up of the edging detail that I did not get right the first time around:

Pretty, huh? So why didn’t I show you all this before? Well, this was a before-blog project, but I always thought it was good enough for a FO post here. That, and the pattern needs some more attention because it is so awesome and I love it. I love this scarf. I think everyone should make one just like it. You know what’s really great about it? It’s so long, I wrap it twice around my neck and feel snuggly warm and cozy wherever I go, even when it’s snowing.

More details, of course, on Ravelry. Until tomorrow—socks! Keep me to that promise, please.

This got done a LONG time ago (the first weekend of November, I think), but I never did a FO post.

Chunky Green, I called it. Geez, when was the last time I talked about this?! In October?!! Yeah, this whole knit blogging thing… not working all that great for me actually. It does take time and energy. More than just casting on and working on something. So my fingers are crossed that I get the next few things uploaded in the next few days.

Sorry there aren’t more pictures. I was rushed in getting the pictures taken that I had, and they just weren’t all that good-looking.

Chunky Green (Ravelry):
Pattern: Corsica by FiberFiend
Yarn: Araucania Nature Wool Chunky. Emerald green.
Needles: good bamboo in size US 9.

I had to mix and match instructions to sizes. The top follows the smallest size while the bottom follows a medium size, or something like that, because of changes in gauge. This is a sweater that got ripped a lot, but I like it. It’s good on days when it’s really cold. However, I really need to stop knitting chunky sweaters. And I need to stop knitting sweaters from the Internet. They may be cool designs, but at least Interweave Knits has an editor that picks out things that are also very flattering when worn. This sweater just looks… odd. Not something someone would really wear. And as I’m becoming more fashion-conscious, I want more elegant sweaters that I feel comfortable wearing everywhere.

Plus, it’s really thick. Chunky wool sweaters are bad to wear in countries where people use heaters excessively (which is every first-world country). So yeah. No more of those!

Oddly, the next sweater I really want to try to knit and wear is the Climbing Vines Pullover, in cream. Two problems: all of my knitting magazines are at home and me? try to dress elegantly? what?? At least they’re 3/4 sleeves. That seems to be something I like.

I’m working on my wardrobe, promise. Though it’d be so much easier if I didn’t have a limit of 100lbs/46kg. And even that is a lot that I’m going to have to drag around.

I’ll just keep working on socks until I figure something out though. Socks are good. Socks are portable. Socks are EASY.

So! I’ll have to post pictures of the sweater that’s been finished forever some other time. Now I have pictures of socks:

Kind of mesmerizing, aren’t they? For a men’s size 10.5 foot, they sure went fast. That’s what I love about stranded patterns. They really suck you in.

Here, the short-row heel that I dislike so much. It seems to have worked out in the end though.

firey stripes (Ravelry):
Pattern: Fair Isle Pattern#2 (I think) from Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. Love that book.
Yarn: Lang Jawoll Superwash Solid in red, yellow, and white
Needles: KnitPicks nickel-plated ones… oh great, I didn’t write down in Ravelry what size they were. I’m screwed. They don’t write the sizes on the KnitPicks needles. Why don’t they?!? I don’t have a needle sizer either. UGH. This is a problem that will have to wait until July then.

Next up:

My new pumpkin colored mystery cable socks.

Halloween Mystery Sock (Ravelry):
Pattern: TTL Mystery Sock, 64st. cable version
Yarn: ShibuiKnits Sock, color 1675, or as I affectionately call it “pumpkin”. They were started in October for Socktoberfest, after all.

All right. If I can find some time tomorrow I’ll have either resolutions, review of the last year a lá Rebee, or the sweater I finished in November and never got around to photographing.

Or I could stress out too much over packing and not post. And then not post for a month. Or six. Who knows? (So.stressed.out.about.packing.and.leaving.the.country. also.I.Need.to.set.up.travel.blog.)

Details on Ravelry.

Here’s a sort of better close up of the pattern. Pictures are hard to do well lately; it’s been snowy and grey.

At the end of the e-mail I got an idea, based on her idea to take some self-portraits at a photo shoot for her blog. This idea wasn’t for her though: it was for me.

I have zero fashion sense. I was reminded of this over at Dulle Griet, where the author bemoaned her lack of fashion sense—how she was never taught “accessorization and applying makeup”. Yeah. I never got any fashion lessons at all.

My idea was then, to get over my fear of putting my picture on the Internet and set up a new blog, one in which I post pictures of my clothes and ask for help with coordinating Outfits.

Yeah, I don’t see it happening either.

I think I’ll just go on pretending I’m a supermodel without showing my face. Or what I wear. Because I haven’t been shopping in a year and I don’t need people to be judging me for that. I think I’m judged all the time without it actually being SAID. I’ll just enjoy my new knitted additions to my wardrobe, because they are warm and colorful. Hurray!

Good Luck Cowl (Ravelry)
Unblocked: between 9″ and 9.5″ wide, 8″ tall – huh. exactly right. Blocked: 10″ across and 9″ high. Also, I only did 9 repeats for the exact same measurements as the original. Oh gauge.
Pattern: Good Luck Cowl
Yarn: Koigu KPPM
Needles: 36″ US4 magic-looped, since I don’t have any 5s at school
Modifications: As stated, 9 repeats of the pattern.

Hey Rebee. Better watch your back. I got a friend who likes to make enemies of people who take up too much of my attention. ;) ‘Course, he doesn’t read my blog. You’re getting off easy.

I miss that cat (that’s Pepper). It’s good to know I have pictures of her (and of course Sugar) too. I was reminded of Pepper today reading A Tribute to Rip. Miss Pepper and Miss Sugar had better be around for the next 17 years, because I can’t imagine life without them. Anyway, doesn’t she look seriously confused? Are you seriously confused?

Look! Fall Backs! Cute, sproingy, warm. Swirly, springy, jumpy. Orange, autumn, October. These socks are all sorts of happy.

Yup, absolutely fabulous. Good thing I jumped that bandwagon, huh?

Fall Back (Ravelry):
Pattern: Spring Forward
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Merino in Autumn Foliage
Needles: Uh? Oh! US 1.5/2.5mm — probably my 32″ KnitPicks circulars.
Modifications: None? I actually finished these on 26 August, so it’s been a while since they were in my mind. There probably were few modifications, if any.

Also, Marie nominated me for a Brilliant Blog Award! I’m so excited! Thank you so much, Marie! I can’t wait to be able to spread the brilliance around a bit, but I’m going to let that lie a day—gotta give myself some time to think!

And now! To knitting on a rainy, grey day!