February Fun

It's February!  And to celebrate I knit my February hat!

As if that wasn't enough... (and since it's going to be busy) I also knit my March hat!

Truth is, I knit March mostly because I was so frustrated by my other project that I needed something simple and easy.  (I nearly pulled out my simple stripe blanket, I was longing for it so much.)  I decided to knit the "Ties that Bind" blanket pattern for my friend due in March.  (um... surprise Viv?)  I did a little bit of swatching and decided to go with the smaller needles.  (US 4 for those who just HAVE to know.)

(US size 6 swatch on top, US size 4 swatch on bottom)

I decided to go with the tighter swatch because the yarn is a cotton/bamboo blend and it's going to stretch out, no matter what needle I knit with.  A tighter gauge will keep it's shape a little better than a loosey/goosey one.  (Yes.  I just used loosey goosey in a sentence.  I hang out with a 15 month old a lot... it's starting to show!)  I was excited to cast on this project and take off... except it turns out that the i-cord cast on is tricky for us finicky types.

Oh no, it's not finicky as in difficult, (just slow) and quite frankly I really REALLY like the edge...

enough that I almost wish I had done an i-cord cast on for the stripey blanket.  It's finicky in a "looks loose" kind of way that drove me mad.  I recast this puppy on about 400 times.  I finally made myself just "let it go" and accept the cast on I had.  Good thing too- because once I started to knit the moss stitch border, it tightened up the loose looking stitches.

So now we're off to the races on this project.  I also wanted to cast on my mittens for my MiL too- but I think I'll push that off until I get at least 10" in the blanket.  If I'm being really honest the delay isn't so much about getting a jump into the blanket and the fact that I can't decide between four patterns to knit her!  Such great ideas out there- and I can't decide what direction I'm going to go in!

So yes- lots of fun things that will hopefully provide some blog fodder for us this month... I really need to get my plate reasonably clear because April 1, I need to begin my Stampede project, and I have a cute plan for that this year... stay tuned!