Going to Extremes?

Not sure if that's the best title for this post. Could be "Bipolar"? Or "Thick and Thin?" "War and Peace"? "Yin and Yang"?

I started off the weekend in a funk. The economic news was depressing, even if we're fine so far. I missed yet another Wollmeise update. I didn't have anything exciting to work on. I had an idea about a sock to knit with the recently un-knit Twisted Tweed Sundara yarn and set about casting on for them. Three times. I got partway through the toe before I decided I didn't really want to do that pattern. Plus, the yarn was looking pretty raggedy, which was harshing my mellow, man.

The yarn that I'd ordered for the Alpine Frost scarf came, and it wasn't entirely what I wanted. What I liked about my last batch of Melosa lace was the tonal shifts in the blues. On the website, the color I ordered (eggplant) looked similar -- dark greyish purple with lighter areas. But the skein I got was a lot more solid than semi-solid. Pffft.

So there I was, feeling very sorry for myself, when I realized that I had to at least do something. I didn't have any other yarn I wanted to use for the Alpine Frost scarf, and I certainly wasn't going to order something else, so I should just suck it up and use what I've got. So I did. I worked on the scarf during the Super Bowl, which ordinarily wouldn't be a smart idea because a) I'm pretty new to crochet; b) it's laceweight yarn; and 3) the game was pretty exciting. But I don't seem to have messed anything up:


It doesn't look as airy as the original, but this is the unblocked view. My yarn may be thicker, too. Doesn't matter: I like it. I'm going to larn me this crochet stuff if it kills me.

I wanted a knitting project, too, so I found a pattern that has possibilities. This is a pattern that I didn't really like when I first saw it, but I like the way it looks on some of the Ravellers who've finished it who seem to be shaped similarly to me. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't know. It looks very good on some people, not so good on others.

The pattern calls for 17 stitches/4 inches on size 10 needles. I haven't knit with size 10 needles in ages! It felt like I was knitting with tree stumps. Alas, I had to go down to size 8s to get a rough estimate of gauge (post-wash).


Still don't know why blogger turns my picture around, and still don't know how to fix it. A swatch! Exciting, isn't it? I'm going to leave you in the dark about the pattern for a little while longer. You know, maintain the suspense, give you a reason to come back, etc. etc.

So I went from utterly depressed and without interesting projects to pleased to have two.

One's on thick needles for a warm sweater, one's a lacy scarf.

One's knit, one's crochet.

Maybe I'm just craft-ADD.