Latifa scarf!

Please, no-one faint with shock. I have finally finished Latifa. I started it in January and proceeded to abandon it on a regular basis for other projects (Clapotis, I'm looking at you).

I did the last 4 or 5 ruffles yesterday (hands *ouch*), then sewed in all the Koigu ends last night. It was finished yesterday but by 11 or 12 at night it was a tad dark to take photos. Today wasn't much lighter either, it has decided to be GLOOMY, that almost half-light you get with a heavy cloud cover and drizzle all day. However I don't think the photos came out half bad, no camera flash which surprised me given light levels indoors:







Pattern: Latifa scarf from Knitty, by Jillian Moreno
Yarn: Garnstudio Silketweed in shades 02 15 01 and 21 (used around a half to two-thirds of each), and Koigu KPPPM in shade 121 (used 1.5 skeins)
Needles: 3.25mm metal needles (ouch)

When I'd knitted the main garter stitch section, I found the edges were quite uneven. This seemed to be due to the varying thicknesses of the different colours of Silketweed - brown being the thickest and green being by far the thinnest. I washed and pinned it out to block, which did a fantastic job of evening it up.

When the pattern says, take regular breaks when ruffling, it means it :-) I found it very hard on my hands, the combination of a metal needle and the multiple increases doesn't leave a lot of breathing room. I found I was lucky if I could manage 3 ruffles in one session. However, I'm very pleased with the final result, and at this rate will be able to wear it if we continue to have temperatures of 13C this week!

I'd probably have finished earlier on Sunday if I hadn't been distracted on Saturday, by cataloguing my stash. Several bloggers have been doing this recently and since I'd already made a projects spreadsheet, and needed to do some general sorting out of yarn anyway, i made an inventory of all of it. It didn't actually take that long, which leads me to believe my stash isn't that big :-D Big enough for 4 sides of a reporters notebook, hmm. I'm currently in the middle of adding it to a spreadsheet. I already have the thing calculating total yardage, and for good measure working out what that is in metres too.

In celebration of finishing Latifa, and because I saw the link to the sale items on Kendra's blog, I ordered enough Rowanspun Aran for a sweater yesterday :-) Today of course I found I could have saved several pounds as McA have the same stuff (drat) but I got mine from Cucumberpatch (shade Hardy, the brightish green). No pattern in mind yet, I might use it as my first self-designed sweater with the able assistance of Ann Budd's book. It's one for the autumn anyway :-)

What else has been occurring this week? I ordered Mason Dixon Knitting from amazon.com (I had a gift certificate to use), and One Skein plus two Neil Gaiman books from amazon.co.uk. Bizarrely the price at amazon.co.uk appears to have rocketed since I placed my order. Looking forward to both books very much.

The TARDIS bag and scarf arrived just in time for my friend's birthday and she seems to like them! It's always a gamble, it seems to me, knitting for people when the item is a surprise, even more so when you haven't had the opportunity to meet in person!

Thanks to the folks who suggested links for buttons last week, the sites are all very interesting: Hazel for Ronda Terry and Debbie Abrahams, and Kendra for Nichols Buttons (amazing couture buttons from the 1940s to 1960s).

It has also been nice to see Harry Potter Knitting getting back on track, with new maintainers. One of the members there is putting together a Quidditch Sweater pattern (both sweater and zipped cardigan) which I am looking forward to immensely.

Now I really ought to finish the jacket, but first I'm going to cast on another Odessa for caps for a Cure, this time in RYC Cashsoft DK. I'm hoping to send both this and the original cotton version off this month.