It's the end of the World/School Year as we know it!

Ah! Final exams are nearly upon us! Classes end a week from tomorrow, and I'm excited... However, I've been a bad girl by knitting instead of studying hardcore.

Indeed, I have pictures to show for myself!

Here is a finished Clapotis wrapped around my head, and another picture of it draped so elegantly over my chair. The dropped stitches give it such depth and beauty (Not to mention stretchiness)! It's such a lovely scarf and it drapes in such a lovely way, either around my shoulders or around my head. It is a very elegant scarf, and I reccomend it even to novice knitters. Wow. Oh, I used 2.25 skeins of Carron's Simply Soft in Black. That yarn is so easy to knit with and oh-so-soft.

This is a version of the Marsan Watchcap I knit exactly to pattern using some gorgeous dark cerulean Paternayan Yarn. I got the yarn at a secondhand clothing store in my hometown, along with a whole bunch of cotton and two other hanks of Paternayan yarn for a mere seven dollars! I was so excited when I got it! I knit the hat to pattern, but it is MUCH too small for any adult head. I wanted to bequeath it unto my boyfriend, but his head is much larger than my own, and considering the hat didn't even fit on my head, well, you get the idea. However, my mom has a good friend with three small children. They live in New Jersey. I figure that it's high time I knit them some presents, especially since they have a new baby girl! I'm thinking Haiku from the Fall '02 issue of Knitty in cotton for the baby girl, and another hat for their other little boy.

This is a new project I started yesterday. It's Branching Out From the new Knitty. I had some Silke-Tweed from Garn Studio in a lovely chartreuse and cream. I wondered how I could combine the two in a more complex pattern than just a stockinette or garter stitch scarf. I was actually thinking of doing the Flower Basket Shawl from Interweave Knits Fall '04, but I messed up a bit on the lace early on, and decided to give up. Yet I remembered that BigGeek had done a version of Branching out that wasn't in a hazy little laceweight yarn. So, following her lead, I present my chartreuse Branching Out, and will proceed to make another one in the cream color for my mumsy for Mother's Day.

I couldn't take the siren-song of Blue Butter. I cast on for Vintage Velvet this morning and haven't looked back. It's so pretty! So soft! I can't wait for it to be wrapped around my neck in all its plush velvety goodness... mmmm.....

In other news, my friend Laura and I went on our first blocking escapade (both of us had never blocked before, though I've been knitting for about a year longer than she has). She made a nice little stockinette scarf with a garter stitch border to learn the techniques, and decided to give it to her mom for Mother's Day. So yesterday we blocked it to get it to un-curl and lay flat. It's so soft and smooth. She used some yarn that I had from a deconstructed 100% merino wool sweater, and produced something lovely. Next she's working on the Zeeby bag in a brown and cream two-ply yarn from another deconstructed sweater I had. (The sweaters cost me about a dollar each, so I don't mind passing on the yarn to her. Besides, we're college kids with limited income.... she'll pass some sweaters along my way in due time). I'm so proud of how well she's doing!

Last but not least (and alas, without pictures), I finished the Slythering Slytherin scarf for Laura. Yesterday it received the final touches of fringe and was bequeathed upon my darling friend. (Now I have five more to go... for her other three housemates, for my boyfriend, and last, one for me... I suspect lots of movie knitting in the future!). Hopefully I can get them done by the time the movie comes out in November, and then we all can Cosplay in our Hogwarts uniforms. Hooray!