I see patterns where you see fleece

So um, I'm actually really liking the knitpick option needles despite usually hating metal needles for being too slippery. I originally bought a pair because you can get an interchangable 40" cable which I needed for the afghan I'm knitting. Even with the slippery yarn I'm using (Suri Dream) I've only dropped a stitch when I've put it down in the middle of a row and it got jostled. Otherwise I haven't had any problems with them being too slippery. And the cable doesn't have that twisted all sorts of weird ways that they tend to have until you manage to get them straightened out thing going on. I have another set of interchangable cable needles and I have to be very careful to make sure the needle isn't becoming unscrewed from the cable or otherwise yarn catches there...it was how I managed to snap the yarn in the middle of a row on a lace shawl I was working on. I haven't had any problems with that with the knitpicks needles either yet.

So they're nifty. I should get more.

I'm thinking I'm going to scrap my idea of knitting a circular center out shawl for a friend's birthday and going with something a bit simpler. I eventually do want to knit that shawl but given that next month is NaNoWriMo where I probably won't be getting a lot of knitting done and the shawl would need to be done by Jan. I'd rather do something that isn't headache inducing to get started. Of course, the new pattern I'm considering will call for extensive swatching as it calls for sports weight yarn and the yarn I'd LIKE to use is lace weight. I'll have to see what needle size works best with pattern and adjust it accordingly. Nothing is simple!

I've got about six inches of afghan done thus far, the newest project is always the most interesting, have you noticed? I need to cast on for the sleeves for the sweater I'm working on as I've gotten to the point in the body where they'll be attached. I may do that this weekend if I'm home though I'll be heading up to Alameda tomorrow night so that I can see "Merrily we roll along" with a friend who lives up there on Sat. And I shall stay virtuously out of yarn stores because I've been truly bad at the bookstores this pay period.

I'm pondering trying my hand at yarn dyeing, though the learning curve at this point seems rather steep. Making my own nifty colors is appealing though.

In other news, I think I'm getting a cold. Bah humbug.

I've been terrible at writing in this thing lately...blame work being busy. I've never actually gotten around to setting up my laptop to access this so if work is crazy I don't actually have time to write here. Which is a pity because I've actually been doing a great deal of knitting lately.

Most of it has been a very dull sweater. My first though so I'm suffering the great expanses of stockinette stitch with the theory that if I do something whacked with the fitting process I won't mind so much that it looks terrible, unlike if I'd done some beautiful pattern and had it turn out badly. My first attempts at things often end up having errors in them somewhere so it makes perfect sense to me.

Also on the needles are that damn Adamas shawl that I keep meaning to pick back up and in theory another shawl I need to have done by January but I can't get the hang of the circular cast on (said shawl is knitted from the center out and I keep flubbing the actual getting started part of that) Maybe I'll try again this weekend though it's looking rather busy.

I also cast on for another blanket last night because new projects are always more shiny than the ones that you keep screwing up and want to throw the needles across the room. It's all fuzzy and I'm not sure if I'm loving it or hating it yet. For once I'm actually using the yarn called for in the pattern and questioning their sanity as lace knit with a fuzzy yarn seems moderately pointless. I'm hoping it because more obvious that the designer wasn't smoking funny weeds once I have more than six rows knit.

Oh, speaking of blankets, I finally got a picture of my first attempt at such (long since given away) Rather an appalling amount of mistakes but it was a double wrap garter stitch and it took me almost all the way to the end before I could figure out how to fix it when I made a mistake.
I think this was the very first real project that I bought the yarn for...it's fun to see how far I've come in such a short time.