Black Death

Ah February, shortest month of the year, freezing cold, month of birthdoom!

After finishing the uncropped cropped sweater, I had some feelings. like, maybe i don't enjoy knitting anymore. Like, maybe i'm still knitting because I can't think of anything else to do and I need to feel productive. Like, maybe I'm not that good at knitting, and it's all been just a huge waste of money. Like, maybe I've allowed knitting to become my identity, and I have nothing else to talk about.
So, I sat with these thoughts for awhile. Took a break from knitting for a couple of days. Now I know this is just nonsense, I don't really believe any of those things.  My feelings had more to do with finally finishing a "big", mostly monogamous project, and having that emptiness that comes with being done, with nothing else on the needles. And also, I'm a just a wee bit bonkers ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
That being said, I've worn the sweater a couple of times, and I'm still pleased with it! I haven't yet washed it though...is that gross?

In the midst of my knitting angst, I ran out of facial cleanser, and I whipped up a batch. Took pictures. Can't find the recipe, but I use 1/4 almond meal, 4 Tblsps of honey, 1/2 tblsp jojoba oil, 1/2 tblsp of sweet almond oil and 5-7 drops of an essential oil of your choosing (I use geranium oil and lavender) Mix well!

And the finished product.

Simple to use, take a dollop of the scrub and rub it on your face in a circular motion, rinse.


I bought a selfie stick. As an old, I'm kind of embarrassed to admit it. I felt pretty ridiculous even buying it in a store. I lied and said it was for my kid, pretending like I had no idea if it would even work with her (my) phone. As soon as I got it home I stashed it under yarn.
You read that right.
I hid my selfie stick under yarn. I don't think I've ever hidden anything, except gifts for other people, before.  I've certainly never hidden yarn (which is apparently a thing according to the forums on rav)
I bought it for knitting reasons. I'm hoping to take less crappy pictures of my finished objects! Look, I have a bunch of people living in this house with me, who are totally capable (actually I'm not wholly convinced they are capable) of taking a picture of me in a finished object, but i'm a bit of a control freak and I like to take a whole bunch of crappy pictures and choose the least bad to post.

In actual knitting, I cast on and finished a bulky sock using stashed leftover bulky wools.

The black is Cascade 128, the teal is Swish bulky, the white is the drops Alpaca, the purple is ancient cascade 128, and the pink is actually two strands of Malabrigo worsted. These socks make the best slippers!

Second sock syndrome going on though...oh well.

AND! I worked on the Greenfield cardy. I finished Season 2 of True Detective while finishing the increases, and reaching the length before having to do the charted bits. So close to finishing!
(Quick True Detective review: surprisingly, enjoyed Vince Vaughn. Colin Farrell over-acts. Story was all over the place. Could we have some female characters that actually have growth and depth? Pls?Without resorting to "I was raped as a child". )  Greenfield WIP pics

I'd have continued working on the cardy, but I cast on the Black Death shawl by Hoxton Handmade in knitpicks swish worsted in Honey instead. Mah knitta needed yarn for a sweater and was going to place an order with kp, and kindly asked if I needed anything. Noticing that I lacked yellow yarn in my stash, I asked her to order me a ball or three, as well as a shawl pin (I broke my wooden shawl pin by dropping it for the 20th time, and now that I've starting making and wearing shawls, a shawl pin is a necessity). The order arrived quite fast and we met up to drink tea and exchange monies for squooshies. So, since Wednesday, it's the only thing I want to knit on.
 Black Death  is knitting up rather quickly, I'm making the small version and really enjoying it. I love, love, love the colour, it's the perfect shade of yellow (in my opinion obvs) and I hope I can pull it off.
Confession: I messed up somewhere. There is a row where the eyelets are off, even though the numbers ended up correct. It is totally human error, not the pattern.  It's like, 5 rows before the lace edging. I am not going to rip back and fix it. My fear is that if I rip back, I'll mess it up even worse, drop stitches and not be able to pick them up, have the count be totally off and need to frog the whole damn thing and then I won't want to re-knit it.  The mistake is not going to bother me, and I don't think it will be super visible, if I wear it with a shawl pin, i'll make sure that half of the shawl is underneath the better half. If I wear the shawl like a scarf, it'll be even less noticeable.
Could be from the beer, could be from the teary eyes (SAD, SAD docs have been watched while knitting; Dear Zachary: A letter to a son about his father and Deliver us from Evil. All the feels, much tears.) Some work in progress pictures!

By Saturday I had made it to the lace edging, knit 3 rows and realized there was a problem, There was only one decrease to the two increases, yet the stitch count was supposed to remain the same. The problem is the SKP-which \I have understood to mean Slip 1, knit 1, pass slipped stitch over. Meanwhile, the glossary of stitches has the SKP as slip 1 stitch, knit the next two together, pass slipped stitch over. Argh.
Sunday morning, I ripped out three rows and put the shawl  back on the needles, met up with Mah Knitta, knit those three rows all over again. Made ANOTHER mistake somewhere which I could not find, ripped out three rows again.
Back on the needles, knit some more.
On the metro ride home, counted my stitches TWICE. Numbers off. Seriously?? Get home, slam things, make dinner angrily. Mutter. Curse. Frog the lace again (the swish held up admirably). Put the little dude to bed and take a deep breath. Put the shawl back on the needles. Knit the first row of lace. Put in stitch markers. Knit, knit, knit. Make absolutely no mistakes. Finish the lace rows in 2 hours.  BOOM BABY! Came out perfect.
Bound off this morning :)
Cannot wait for this shawl to dry! I love love love it. This is the unblocked version.

This is the soaking version.

Next week (or thereabouts) will be a blocked version! Stay tuned!