Half step back three forward

 I let the hanks hang for a few minutes because I was impatient of course. But I did let them relax out of the twist at least. I then caked them as best I could. My winder does not like heavy yarn at all.

I had to wind to a point and then take it off and hand ball the rest. You remember my cramped quarters and my winding set up. The skeins were fantastic and didn't tangle at all, I was so careful opening them up. 

For the record I balled them yesterday Jan 12 and started knitting that night. I initially cast on the 104 stitches that the pattern called for and got to the end of the round and in the process of switching needle tips from the 8 to the 7 I looked and one end of the cable had come off six stitches. Crap. Okay take it all off and be more careful when I switch next time.

Okay so got that restarted and (the lighting is not the best due to the overhead light reflection) then  I realized that it was going to be waaayyy too loose.. Sigh. 

So I gave up on the idea of the citrus hat and decided to go with just a 2x2 rib all the way up on the size 7's. Cast on with the 8's and carefully changed to the 7's after doing one round just to make sure the edge was going to stretch and now, after almost twenty four hours..about two inches is done. I would say that about six hours of actual work on it. One advantage to working with worsted weight, and especially a hat is it works up very quickly. If I were still riding the bus this hat would be done in a week. One hour commute twice a day five days a week and 45 minute commute two days a week..yeah would have them both done before summer.

Needless to say I got the toe increases done on the Sheepicorn socks and put that aside to start the hat. I'm really loving the colors on this and by the time I get to the crown it's going to be mostly greens but it will still be pretty. The colors are swirling around the hat you can see sort of in the picture. I'm loving the texture on the yarn as well. It's not as tight as other yarns, almost has a roving feel to it but it's wonderfully soft Merino. I was afraid to do a gauge swatch because as it was with having to rip it back twice the yarn would catch on itself 'pilling' if you will when you pull on a chain stitch and the 'halo' of the yarn gets caught up in the next loop.

I'm already contemplating getting a DK weight for fingerless gloves or half finger gloves, depending on how ambitious I am. I'd love to get the semi solid purple and make a pair of fingerless gloves for Jon (my SO). So many plans so little time and money.