October Goals

Crisp air, rustling leaves, shorter days - it must be October. Last month I came very close to meeting my goals. I failed to finish up the Trinket Scarf, but I'll be sure to work on it over the next couple months (and I've abandoned the Elizabeth lace scarf). I did finish my wonderful Silk Shrug, two pairs of socks, and a cabled scarf. So what's up for October?

1) Marissa pullover from Adrienne Vittadini volume 20 (Forgot I moved Marissa to November:) ) Rosedale United
2) Ivy
3) Plain Socks in Schoeller & Stahl Mexiko Disco #9051 Durango
4) Stillwater socks in Claudia Hand Painted Chocolate Cherry
I was so excited about knitting Ivy that I already started and so far I have a couple inches of the back done. I am knitting the 40 inch size on size 2 needles. I decided not to go with the recommended yarn since none of the colors really appealed to me. Instead I picked out the Autumn Purple color in the Elann Peruvian Highland Silk. Elann indicates it is the same weight and gauge as the recommended yarn, but it creates a very firm fabric when I knit to the pattern gauge (though it did soften considerably when I washed the swatch). The density of the yarn does allow the cables to really pop though which is always a good thing. The yarn is beautiful and you can't beat the price (total cost of sweater with just-in-case-extra ball of yarn $57). I've also joined the Ivy Knitalong. It is a lot of fun to see everyone's different Ivy sweaters. The pattern is very well written and I am enjoying knitting this a lot. I love purple!

As for socks, I cast on for a pair of simple stockinette socks using Schoeller & Stahl Mexiko Disco (color #9051 Durango). Since this yarn has little sparkles it's not exactly plain so I think stockinette is the way to go. I have always loved shiny things (My mom is convinced I was a raccoon in a past life) so when I saw this yarn at Elann last year I bought a bunch. As I've come to learn, I knit self-patterning yarns more quickly than monochromatic or handpainted yarns since I like to see the next repetition of the pattern. I had a false start on them this weekend, which you can see to the right. I got past the heel and gusset decreases before I realized these socks weren't just loose, they were full out baggy. Oh well, these socks (once frogged and restarted) should still go very quickly which is good since I'm dying to cast on with the Claudia Hand Painted. October is Socktoberfest time after all!

This weekend I also knit up a cute little hat using Olympus Make Make yarn and a free pattern that came with it from KPixie. I absolutely love this hat and it matches my hard to match coat perfectly! The yarn was very nice to work with (it's wool with a little mohair) and I like the tone on tone color shifts. I finished the hat using the pattern as written and found it to be more of a beanie length than a hat so I undid the top and added a couple inches to the plain stockinette section at the top. Much better now. The yarn is a little spendy ($18 for 3 balls - you need 2 for the hat, but it comes in bags of 3), but, really, less than $20 for a cute hat that knits up in a day? That's not bad at all...now, do I need to make more of these in other colors? ;)

And a little sidenote...The opera was wonderful! We had an incredible time. I can't wait to see our next one in November:)