tychus!

i just thought i’d say i’m really bad with linking to things that i talk about, so soon enough i’ll put in links on all the names of things i’ve mentioned.

anyway, i just knit a tychus!  it’s a great hat pattern from knitty which provides some really excellent shaping sans knitting in the round!! i only wish i was clever enough to think of making a hat in wedges of short rows.  no decreases, just one seam, what’s not to love.  i did it in some black and dark grey patons classic wool for a friend, who has a black wool pea coat.  the yarn is held double and knitted on size 10 needles rather than the 9 that was specified.  it’s a bit big on me, so i’m hoping it will fit him.  i only did four wedges instead of 5, because the 5 looked massive, and since i don’t know if mattress stitching works with vertical rows of garter, i just single crocheted the seam together from the wrong side.  personally, i think that sc the seam is a really good idea for mattress-stitch-phobes, although the seam doesn’t lie as flat(ish) as a mattressed seam, it’s fast and pretty neat, and theres no poking of yarn needles through the middles of stitches.  i wouldn’t crochet, say, an entire sweater side seam this way, but for things like hats where a nice flat seam isn’t totally necessary, it’s pretty useful.  it saved some time on finishing, and i like that.  especially considering i did the whole hat in bouts of intense knitting today, which is rather speedy for me.  i definitely have to refine my technique so i can knit a little faster, so i’ll pay more attention to how i make stitches and see what can be done. 

the skating sweater is coming along well.  i’ve knit the front and nearly all the back, so soon it’s just seaming and sleeves, which i still havent gotten needles for/learned a new technique for yet.  too bad!  i tried it on and it seems a smidge shorter than i anticipated it being, and again, scared to block.  and at this point, i’m just not going to rip anything out and reknit, so i’ll have to deal.

it’s so scary that there’s only a month left in the semester (not even).  the time has flown by.  i only wish that i had reconnected with someone earlier in the semester, it would have felt so much more fulfilling.  lately i’ve been hanging out with a girl who i’d totally lost touch with, who was my absolute best friend in high school.  funny how college does that.  but anyway, we’ve been having dinner and coffee a bunch lately, doing some shopping and scrabble-ing (that is what ALL the cool kids do…don’t hate on the word nerds), and it’s probably been the best last week of the entire semester.  i couldn’t ask for more.

-A