The shawl from hell is finished!!

I suppose it isn't fair to call it the "shawl from hell". It isn't hard, and it is well written. There are no mistakes, and even the yarn was nice to work with, but MAN oh MAN! This thing was BORING. Holy Crap. I almost fell asleep while knitting it every time I picked it up - and not from sleepiness. That said, the person I decided to give it to will love it!

Name: Fountain Pen shawl from IK spring 2009

Yarn: JoJoland Harmony

Needles: size 5 glass needles from glasspens.com

Notes: Have I said "boring"? It is my fault though. I knew it would be boring, I just wasn't prepared for the extent of the dullness. I wanted something "easy" for a car trip. I got "easy". I should have taken something with a *tad* more meat on it, I now realize. I guess the real problem is that it isn't soooo easy that you can just go on auto pilot, and not hard enough to feel like you are really creating a work of art. The FPS lives in the ether between these two states of knitting. It isn't difficult, but you have to pay attention to most of the rows since some of them intuitively line up, and some of them don't.

I think it is the same problem I have with feather and fan. I have to count every. damn. row. I cannot do it intuitively. (For what it's Worth, I seem to be the only person that HATES F&F.) Anyway, if I hadn't purposely distracted myself with other knitting it would have been a relatively fast knit. As it stands, it took me 5 weeks. It might not sound it, but that is slow for me and this kind of shawl.

Another part of my ennui towards this project was the yarn. It was ok to knit with, but compared to the angel fart, pure silk yarn I had used on the shawl previous, it was like bailing twine. Maybe it is like Gilbert and Sullivan's "Ruddygore". The Mikado was a HUGE hit for G&S, and it didn't matter what came out next, the fans were going to hate it because Mikado was so fucking awesome! My biggest complaint about it is the colorway. I thought I loved it. It looked like 'beach in a ball' on the shelf. Then I started to knit with it. It went from beach to dirty river. Yerg.

Looking at the completed and blocked FO, it isn't as bad. It is too stripey for my taste, but I thought of a gift recipient that will love it for that very reason. I don't care for the really light, almost white, stripe right in the middle. I have another at the edge, but it is such a long series of rows, it isn't as noticeable. If that white bit wasn't there, I'd go from "eh" to "ok" on the project love scale.

PS. I'm working on the Dahlia sweater again! do a 'no rash' chant for me!

Blogging about.. well, not much at all

Summer is so weird around the Costumechick blog. I am not at work a whole lot - mostly because I need to use up my Vacation days, and my pirated (yes, still) Internet at home is spotty, at best. But I am trying to post when I am actually at work, and have time, since I have lots 'o crap to do because I'm not here much. It is a vicious cycle.

What I've been up to:

1.The Dahlia Darling sweater. I'm still love it, but am not working on it. I developed a rash. I stopped knitting it, just in case, and a week has gone by. My rash is gone. Could be a coincidence. I am going to finish a few other things, then pick it back up. If the rash comes back, I'll have to take evasive maneuvers.

2. Fountain Pen Shawl.

I pretty much hate it. I dislike the yarn and colorway, but I am on the last repeat, so I am finishing it anyway. It's hard to stay on top of it though. I can find a million better things to do. That said, I'm not frogging it. If I don't like it now, I'm not going to like it better later. Instead, I'll overdye it when I'm done, providing it looks as much like ass as I think it is going to.

3. Little Black Cat Hat. I cast this on in umm.... May? All it needs are eyes and ends woven in. How lame am I? You know, I could avoid the Fountain Shawl tonight and finish this.....

4. Mark's mittens. I forgot I even cast on for these until I looked at my Ravelry WIPS. Sad.

5.Cloverfield Shawl. I cast on for this in the fall for a play at work. We ended up not needing it, so I stopped working on it and put the project in my desk cubby at work. I keep looking at it and thinking "just finish it". At the same time, I know there are errors that I just fudged around since it was just a prop, and i think "rip the fucker out." Really, I'd just like my needles back.

6. Three sweaters of crappity crap. I have three (THREE) sweaters that I need to frog. One is done to the armpits, and I realize it is three sizes too big. One is done, but fits like ass. The last is Evad's mutton chop sleeve sweater of Doom. Seriously. It's been 4 years. Sad Sad Sad

7. Madame Defarge Socks.

Obviously, I have nothing else to knit, so I cast on for my Socktopia, July socks. The details will come later. Just know that it wasn't *all* Fountain Pen avoidance.

Whew. But you know, despite all of that, I did manage to cast on and complete two quick projects last week.

It's a hat and a scarf from some RAK yarn that I think is Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky. I still have a ball left, so I might make more some more quick hats. I don't know if they are a gift or for charity yet. We'll see!

Oh, and I heard that! I know I had lots of things OTN, but I didn't have any good movie knitting. My dahlia sweater was on Time Out, otherwise the ribbing on the front would have been perfect, I hadn't cast on the socks yet, and the rest are too complicated or involved, in some way, to do at the movies. I am practical, you see.