I finished my scarf on Friday night, and it was the tiniest bit short for me to feel good about giving it as a gift, so I just had to keep it for myself! I thought it would be perfect for this time of year, short and light but enough to keep the neck warm.* Plus those colors, how could I give them away so easily? (Yes, this, just 33 days before Christmas when the clock is ticking and the list of things I want to give for Christmas is growing exponentially). Pay yourself first, that's what my mom says. Usually she is talking about life savings, but it's the same with knitting, I'd say.

I took pictures in the parking lot of my building from the car roof for a while today for a while until I realized that I could just take a picture without a timer and it turned out just as well. In the end, it turns out that a slightly warmer scarf would be more appropriate these days after all. In this shot you can see the actual length of the scarf. It ends right there with the purple and red. Not quite long enough to wrap around, but still nice. What do you think, is it too short to give as a gift? I used exactly two skeins of Noro Silk Garden and with 6 skeins left, I might be able to finish another one or two someday.

I was sidelined with a sinus infection for a few days and without the will to knit a stitch. It was depressing, but yesterday I finally spent some time with my new, more muted colors as I wrapped up in my new blanket and old quilt. Perhaps this one will be gifted.

Posted by Molly at 07:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I have been meaning to make one of the Child's Rainbow Scarves from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts for a while, but I never had the right colors or amount of Kureyon. On Saturday, I finally made a trip with a couple of friends to the one shop in our area that stocks Noro and other nice yarns. It took nearly an hour and a half to get there, and when we did it turned out that they don't carry Kureyon in the store anymore, but only by special order. They did have a lovely selection of colorful silk garden that was calling out to me, so I ended up picking up a few skeins. I had gotten some on sale in Osaka a couple of weeks ago, but with the bright colors I picked up here I now have enough to make two bright scarves instead of one muted one. How could I resist?

That afternoon we went to our local SnB which we started having on a regular basis this year, the 2nd Saturday of each month. It is a little bit hard to organize because the knitters in my region are scattered all over the place and can live up to 4 or 5 hours apart. But this week was our biggest showing yet, with nearly 20 people. It was good to see everyone but not the best setting for working on my Endpaper Mitts or doing anything that required much thought. Instead, I cast on for an easy 1x1 ribbed scarf with my new yarn and chatted the afternoon away with all of our friends. A very good Saturday, I'd say.

**Edit: I finally had the chance to catch up on some blog reading and it turns out I am not the only one knitting a scarf like this. I found this nice scarf, and this one too, which eventually led me back to Brooklyn Tweed. I must have seen one of these before starting my own and it never really registered. Each one lovelier than the next, this is such an easy and attractive pattern!

Posted by Molly at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I have been stalled out on a lot of big projects that I want to start these days because I don't have the right sized needles. I have this huge mess of circs and dpns, all bound up nicely into the needle holder that my mom made for me, but they are still very poorly organized. The Japanese sizes and the American ones all mixed together... ugh. One of these days I am going to get them all together and input all the data into that handy ravelry chart. Until then, I will move forward with the less desirable mish-mash system.

While I was waiting for some new yarn to arrive I decided to cast on for some smaller items that I have been dying to make. It is just getting cold here, and while winter is no where near here yet, my office is already freezing. I started Calorimetry in the hopes that it would double as a "headband" that I could wear to work, to keep my ears cold in the frigid office. The whole thing took me about two days to complete, not counting the time I was waiting to find a button.

Look at this baby! I never would have picked this flowery button for that yarn if I hadn't brought the headband with me--but this button jumped out at me and it turns out that it suits the knitted fabric pretty well. The headband might be a little thick to pass as indoorwear at work this winter, but it was so fast that I could easily whip out another, smaller one when it starts to get REALLY cold.

Posted by Molly at 07:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

On Friday, I skipped school and headed to Osaka for a day of shopping with Mariko who just happened to be visiting and in the area. It's not very often that someone is in my neck of the woods, and I was really happy to get to hang out with Mariko after meeting her on her last visit. Thanks to the Japanese knitters group on Ravelry, I found out about a new Yuzawaya branch in Namba that I never knew about, so it was first on our list. We headed straight there and I was impressed with its size and selection considering the place was only one floor! There I found the perfect button to finish off the Calorimetry that I whipped up last week.

The afternoon was full of shopping and walking around so when I finally got on the train home that night I was absolutely exhausted. But I soon forgot about my empty wallet and tired feet when I realized I had a big chunk of uninterrupted knitting time on the train home. Now I am almost done with my first endpaper mitt!

Posted by Molly at 08:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)