On the WIP front: The VK pullover is coming along well. The front is about half-way done as of now. A photo from 2 days ago:
I have since started the ridge pattern (which takes forever). The sides are held down by pins, so they're not really that angular!I cast on for Paul's afghan on the 2nd (Sunday) and was less than 10 rows in when I frogged it at Wednesday's knitting night. My stitch count seemed off and since I'd be dealing with cables, it seemed best to have the correct amount of stitches on my needles. I've since gotten further than I was before I frogged it but I'm still a few rows short of cabling.
At this point the stitch pattern doesn't look like much so it's not worth photographing.
At first, knitting with circulars was a bit awkward, but once I learned to turn my work so the two ends of my knitting wouldn't join, things progressed pretty quickly. Circular needles have intimidated me for so long, so it was a surprise to me how easy they are to handle. My only complaint is that the needles can spontaneously untwist from the cable! It's happened twice so far. I sort of panicked the first time and did this fancy maneuver of transfering the stitches from the separated needle onto a stitch holder. The second time happened in class and I didn't have anything to hold the stitches. Sliding them all down onto the cable and then re-attaching the needle worked perfectly, so I guess fancy maneuvers aren't necessary. I'm used to stitches getting lost the instant they slip off the needle, so I think the chunkier yarn of this project plus the bigger gauge is the reason that didn't happen.
These needles are the screw-in kind and it looks like that's not the best mechanism.
I've also discovered the joys of knitting in class. Yes, I swore that it could never work for me and yes, I am now eating my words. As long as I don't need to constantly write things down, knitting in class is possible.
Now on to the inspiration:
Some leaves I found on the ground a few days ago. The colors are absolutely stunning. Someday, if I ever learn how to dye yarn, I hope to attempt to recreate these colors. A few of my favorites:
In in attempt to preserve them, I've pressed these leaves into a Webster's dictionary. I discovered a pressed spider as I was flipping through it--made me jump about a foot. Note to self: don't use books to kill spiders hanging in mid-air by their webs.
