All finished!

I finished Satanski's scarf, and it came out great! I love this yarn (Malabrigo Worsted, in Oceanus), and Satanski loves his scarf. That picture to the left shows what the scarf looked like last night, when I was about 60% of the way finished. I'm going to get started on matching mittens tomorrow, with a hat to follow soon thereafter. I need to block the scarf, as right now all it wants to do is roll itself back into a ball, but that means that I might as well block all the other stuff I've been ignoring for a while. Block party tomorrow!

Sorry, I'm groaning over here, too.
















This is what the OpArt blanket is looking like these days. That kid is due nigh on two months from now and I still don't know when we'll be having his dad's baby shower at work, so I should definitely get the lead out and start doing a lot of work on this again. Even after I'm done knitting, I'm going to be weaving in ends forever, so I should just do it already.

Progress

OpArt is still pretty easy, but it's no longer as fast of a knit as it used to be! I'm up to 75 stitches in each section, or 300 stitches total.

Aw yeah!

Now my OpArt blanket is really coming along! The pattern really is dead simple. I did a figure-8 cast on and then went from there, so I didn't get the annoying ridge thing that happened when I tried a regular cast on and knit the first rows in the round
Then, as long as I didn't do anything stupid (like stop counting), I had no problem with the pattern. And honestly, I really only have to pay any sort of attention four times in a round, and even I can do that. I'm also finding my new stitch counter invaluable, and wonder if I was already thinking ahead to this project when I impulsively added it to my purchases last time I went to Purl Soho. I'm up to 39 stitches in each section (I find it easier to think of sectional counts, than total stitch count). This really is one cool-looking blanket! I'm actually looking forward to blocking it, because I want to see it at its best!

Break

I took a break from knitting and got back to reading. I now miss my socks, but at least I feel like I've really been exercising a different portion of my brain. Last night I tried to start the OpArt blanket by Melissa Dominguez, and ended up feeling like a moron, because I was having trouble understanding the whole two circular needle method, especially because the pattern is rated "mellow" by Knitty. So I'll try again today or tomorrow, once I've gotten adequate sleep. I'm just sad because I even did a gauge swatch and am so ready to start this baby. If I don't get it the next time I try, I may just cheat and start it on double pointed needles, switching once it gets bigger. This will be my fourth baby blanket, and hopefully this one will actually be completed before the birth of the child it's intended for!