Oh, by the way…

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Originally uploaded by slashkitten

I’m done with the Rose Shrug! Yay!

I picked up along the bottom and just knit till I was pretty much out of yarn. Added a second buttonhole along the way, I use this one, the second one doesn’t even have a button attached to it. I realize it looks stupid with the shirt, but OH WELL.

Sigh.

 This was going to be the glorious post where I proclaim EUREKA! It is done.

And then I realized the fucking thing is too short for my huge boobs. So what I’m gonna do is go back to the needles, pick up stitches along the bottom, do some more seed stitch rim until I’m out of yarn (or something) and add a second buttonhole. I hope I can find a button similar to the one I picked out – it’s really pretty, silver and kinda… bohemian.

Ah man, fucking Rose Shrug.

Wow.

So, I have maybe 10 rows of the back piece left of the Rose/Bohemian shrug. Knit the night through, yay! But now my hands, esp my thumbs, hurt, and my right elbow from sitting on a hard plastic surface for hours upon hours. Oh, and my eyes keep drooping shut. So I’ll get some sleep now, and then finish this baby up later: Knitting that bit, sewing the tops together and finding a nice button. (Did I mention I already crocheted around the buttonhole with yarn left over from the long-tail cast on?)

Pffffffffff. I’m beat, but also incredibly proud of myself. But now, bed, before I’m 100% goo.

Rose Shrug – halftime

When I said the Rose Shrug was instant gratification, I didn’t know how instant that gratification would be. I’ve been knitting like a madwoman and I just did the ‘scary row’, i.e. parting the band into right and left flap and back. Already put left flap and back on my giant holder safety pins – starting the right flap now. Omg. I might just… knit the night through or something.

Yarnwhoring and the Rose Shrug

I went to Dortmund yesterday, for the monthly Stricktreff (Cafe Max) and to try the Plaetzsch Garnhandel. Which is basically a big old storage hall crammed full of yarn at really low prices, and I splurged a little. I.e. I bought yarn in advance, and some I have no idea what to do with yet.

This is woodsy-colored cotton sock yarn. I’m curious how it knits up compared with the sock wool I’ve been using. I don’t have a pattern set for it yet – I have a couple on my Ravelry queue, like the Primavera socks (which I sort of want to order Wollmeise Rhabarber yarn for…) or the currently unavailable Kaylee. But I still have time, I want to finish Q before starting another pair of socks. And this time, on my bamboo needles, which premiered on Leo II but have been hanging out in my needle box otherwise. Since it’s supposed to be stretch, maybe I can knit them a size smaller? I’d love that.

I title this the Splurge Yarn, since I have no idea what to make with it. The color jumped at me out of the new arrival box, and when I saw that it was mostly merino, I had to have it. (The fact that it was, like all of these, under €3, helped immensely) I might make a pair of Fetching gloves with them, since I did a pretty awesome pair with Lana Grossa’s Merino 2000, which is a really similar yarn. Or… hmmmm. We’ll see. I’m glad to have it at hand in case the perfect pattern pops up.

And then last but definitely not least, the Luna yarn (3 balls) for my Rose Shrug. Aaaah, the Rose shrug. I’ve done my first left-twist row and it’s already the most bohemian thing I’ve ever knit, but maybe because of that I’m really excited. It’s not just red – there’s black, brown, ochre, green and blue mixed in, and it just looks… well, very bohemian :D I shall pair it with some obscenely big wood jewelry and hippie music.

It’s weird knitting with 8mm needles after so much sock knitting, but it’s so instantly gratifying and the whole thing is just 5 stitches more than my Q socks. (Which, by the way, are progressing much more nicely than anticipated. I had a lot of time yesterday, waiting for and in trains, killing time in Dortmund, and two and a half hours at the Stricktreff) I already have 6cm/2.”, which isn’t bad for a day when my hand hurts and I’m supposed to be studying history (though the edge is so stupendous – seed st – that I studied while knitting. Yay for multitasking!)

Ah, knitting. I can’t wait for my exams to be over so I can knit more.

Oh, and for the 6 balls of yarn I paid €14.65 – I’ve paid that much for 3 balls of Lana Grossa – and the bargain shopper in me rejoices. And then I went back and bought a pair of 8mm circs – for €7 -.- WHY DO NEEDLES HAVE TO BE SO EXPENSIVE??? Well, at least they last you for, oh, a lifetime. (Still expensive *grumble*)