Gauging Success and Failure

 I finished the Marching Alpaca hat. A few things I've learned:

• Holding the yarn in my left hand results in a MUCH looser gauge than holding the yarn in my right hand
• I need to learn how to purl lefty correctly
• I need to learn how to pick up those long floats between rows
• Stranded knitting has the potential to be MUCH TIGHTER in the round than just plain stockinette

So where to next? Another hat? I would like to practice a piece knit entirely holding the yarn in my left hand. Will my next stranded project be completed holding the yarn in 2 hands? Both in the left hand? 

I'd like to start on a color block project, most likely a sweater. I've done about 5 top-down raglans NP and I want to experiment with the colors. I picked out a few ideas on Ravelry, but choosing colors is always a challenge.

I also need to finish my Domestika Visible Mending class. I'm skipping the chapter on how to care for knits and going right to the final project. The problem is I don't have the right hole-y sweater to practice on. Buy one on eBay? Wish I had kept one of my old top-down raglans mentioned above. 

I will update the progress on the temperature blanket with a picture next time. Also almost done with the Mara shawl. The last 4 rows are killing me!

Peruvian Marching Power

My first attempt to know something entirely with the yarn in my left hand. This one is called Marching Alpacas Hat. That left-handed experiment ended when I discovered holding a color in each hand was easier. The brim got naffed up because I didn't know how to purl continental style. You still have to wrap the yarn, apparently. It wasn't the best combo of yarn and needles. Lamb's Pride worsted on a size 7 needle not great. I will persevere.

The temperature blanket is growing slowly, and I'm on the last bit of the mara shawl. My fingers have been hurting a little, and I'm not sure why. Is if from yoga, too much knitting, arthritis, or what? 

Fake it till you make it

Sailing Away to Fake-It Island

 Again, from far away the Fake Isle hat doesn't look so bad. The crown got so messed up I gave up and just knit solid and totally faked the decreases. So, yes, faking it until I make it.

I attempted to create a tableau with the pattern and my Knitting with Color book to distract from the disastrous knitting. Even the pretty bouquet adds to the photo, don't you think? 

I've already started another hat but I can see that Row 4 has a mistake and the little alpacas that are part of the pattern have a white spot on their back legs. I'll post a pic as that one gets closer to the end. 

I'm also toiling away on the Mara shawl for Patty. It's been going great, but now that I'm knitting the edging, I think I have two wrong sides. There are a lot of stitches on the needle as well. It's just a simple knit 2 purl 2 ribbing, but it's double the number of stitches, and you still must create the little yarnovers at each end and in the middle. I'm going to hold off taking any pictures until it's completed since right now it doesn't look like anything but a mound of stitches.

I have put my third rainbow rabbit to the side for a while, procrastinating attaching the head. I'm not sure how I feel about toymaking. Learning to knit while holding the yarn in each hand while reading a chart is what I want to focus on and master right now. I'll pick another easy hat for my next practice project. 

Continental Divide

Knitting the "continental" way leaves me with a much looser gauge than my right-handed multiple-wrap method. I have found that I can get into a groove with it after a while. I tried purling the continental way and did it wrong. I only realized that I did it wrong when the next row had all the stitches on backward (left leg out in front). You still have to wrap the yarn when purling, so in either style, purling still sucks.