Knitting Update - Or Not...

This was meant to be a knitting and photo heavy entry, but our camera had other ideas.

First, the FOs:
Pattern: Calorimetry, from www.knitty.com
Yarn: Manos of Uruguay, Violets
Needle: maybe 8s?

Wonderful Pattern, although I CO 90 sts and decreased the width. In the future I would CO 70 sts and decrease the width again. However, I wanted this to be a 1/2 hat for skiing, not a headband, so the wider width is ok. I will definitely make this pattern again, in fact I already bought yarn for a second (and maybe 3rd) one.



The WIPs:

Pattern: Irish Hiking Scarf
Yarn: Rowan Cashsoft DK in a bright pink, 1.75 skeins
Plan: to make the Irish Hiking Scarf long enough to just wrap around my neck twice and then fasten with snaps. I'm making this to match my ski jacket and don't want long tails hanging down into the jacket, so it's sort of a scarf/neckwarmer.

Not to Plan: the snaps won't work and there isn't enough room in between rows and sts to realistically put in buttons. I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do. The options I have are putting in hooks to allow me to fasten the ends together, or unraveling the end and putting in button holes. I'm leaning towards the button holes.

Pattern: Rogue with Cardi conversion


The Problems:
1) When I blocked it the yarn relaxed and its much bigger than it was. Especially on the right side, which means I must have pinned it wrong, or something. I swatched and blocked and the swatches actually tightened up, but when I had the whole garment, it loosened. I've checked gauge throughout and was consistent, but the blocking messed it up rather then fixing the problems. The hood has also become huge. The bust fits, which is a freakin' miracle, but the bottom bells out in an uneaven, funny, and unflattering way. Maybe it has to do with the weight of the garment? Either way, I'm going to block it again and use warmer water this time. I'm also going to try to squish it back into shape and hope I can block it smaller.

2) My i-cord didn't go up high enough so I have a gap between the border of the hood and the i-cord I attached to the garment. My options are to re-do both i-cords or to try to graft on to the top of each and then graft them to the hood. I've done it on the left with considerable success. Part of the joining isn't perfect, but I think it's good enough for me. I'll include pics soon I hope.

3) I installed the wrong zipper. I put in a pants zipper rather than a cardigan zipper. Which is just as well b/c I have all of this other work to do and I didn't do a great job anyway.

Pattern: Tempting, will have Tempting II neckline modifications
Status: I'm about 6" up the body. 2x2 ribbing is great for TV knitting, but rough on the wrists/shoulder. I'm not to the sleeves/neckline yet, but hopefully it won't be too bad...



I also have 2 new hanks of yarn that will become a Calorimetry and My So Called Scarf, but those are going to have to wait.
That's the state of the crafting nation, more when I fix the camera issues.