First, fail at video...

So, I've decided I really, really love the Blue Sky Alpacas Metalico. Not just because it's the only Alpaca I can handle without my hands turning bright red - although that's certainly a consideration - but because it is SO SOFT. And it's just cool. Here's a video of the Untangling of the Skein - I'm sure this is a perfectly ordinary normal way to arrange yarn, but it's the first time I've paid attention when I've come across it, and I was delighted. Sadly, it's very dependent on which end you pull first - so here's a video of the exact WRONG way to smoothly unbraid the skein:


The cameraman is laughing so hard that he can't hold the camera steady. Oh well.
Yeah, well. If it had worked, it would have been cool.

Anyway, once I thought a bit (and pored through several Ravelry pattern searches), I realized I wanted to make a Moebius-something. The Lovely L taught me a Moebius cast-on back in the dark ages (aka the 1990s), but as I've crashed several computers and lost any ability to recover things from 5" floppy disks, I had to re-learn with my 2012 brain. Luckily, the internet coughed up CAT BORDHI - Intro to Moebius Knitting, which was all I needed to get going. Originally, I was going to knit up her free Cashmere Moebius Cowl, too, and that's the number of stitches I cast on. Went happily along for quite some time (about five rows - which on a moebius is a LOT of stitches), and then decided to put in stitch markers every pattern repeat (which is 16 stitches for this pattern).

Then a fellow Black Adder put some of her patterns on sale, and while buying several of them, I discovered her Jolly Roger Shawl. The skull motif was just the sort of thing I was looking for. And by some miracle, my initial cast-on of 288 stitches (done at random, no real planning, just Seemed About Right) was ALSO divisible by 18 - the stitch repeat for the skulls. I didn't know this as I was knitting a row to move the stitch markers down - and you could've knocked me over with a feather when I got to the final repeat and I had the right number of stitches. Very, very nice coincidence, that!

So, I knit a few more rows, and started the pattern. Here it is on Monday morning, just about to start the third lace row - the one with the 1-to-5 increases:


And here it is today:


Okay, so there's not THAT much progress. But it's still very, very soft!!! Plus I figured out there were 550 stitches a row - so cut me slack. That's a lot of lace stitches!!

UFO Friday - Another finish!!

Yay, photos work today!!!

So, Monday last, I found some yarn and a pattern, and started to make a smoke ring for myself (the pattern, "Silken Smoke Ring" by Angela Ho and Flora Yang, is free over on Elan. Since it's made with my usual garish color choices, I'm calling it "Rainbow Mist" instead of a smoke ring. Anyway, here's how it's gone so far, in photos:

Monday best shot of actual colors	Tuesday
Wednesday	Thursday
Thursday close-up	Friday
Saturday	Sunday

... and it fits!

Yep, it's done, and in under a week! Yaaaaaay!!!

The UFO report...

Um, well, some things are getting done. Since I finished absolutely NOTHING in July, I'm hoping to get a really high number of finishes in August. So far, I've got the Floofy Bed Socks with Flower:


The Dream Swatch Head Scarf, which, as you can see, was finished on the trip to Ohio:


Simple Flat-Knit Bedsocks (pattern will be up next week):


... and I accidentally started a smoke ring on Tuesday. (I had to - it was the Let's Knit2gether August knit along, but I didn't realize it was until Monday, and trust me, it was SOME GIANT THING to actually be able to find yarn and needles in the stash room believe me you it was NOT EASY to start this project really it wasn't!) It's in very "me" colors, and not anything resembling any sort of smoke I've ever seen.


(I'm pretty sure if you see smoke that color, you're supposed to hold your breath while running as fast as you can in the opposite direction.)

I also pulled out a quilting project (a small Christmas-colored chessboard) tha I haven't worked on for a while, a cross-stitch project I packed to take to my sister's wedding last June, and it lived in the suitcase until I packed for the drive to Ohio, and looked - frequently - at my hot-pink merino shawl project, but never quite took it out of the bag.

But hey: three finished projects so far in August does NOT suck!!