The Lily of the Valley is out and smelling wonderful too. That reminds me, I should really work on that scarf... 
And one of the big huge irises opened up today. So cool. The one that opened last week got destroyed in the high winds we had here on Saturday - so sad.
Alright, back to the regularly scheduled programming. I have been knitting up a storm in the last week. Nothing like a good competition to make me amp it up. We'll start with the FO's. I finished the Sunshine socks on Wednesday - I think. Could've been Thursday. Whatever. They're done. And they're pretty, and I really like them.
So, now we move onto the Harry Potter knitting. For the class called Arithmancy, the challenge was to make something to do with Phi (pronounced fee, as Mom informed me). I'm not going to go into a long winded mathematical explanation, because this blog is about knitting and not math, but look it up if you so please, it's quite interesting. The short story is, something to do with the Fibonacci sequence, or the Golden Ratio - something to do with the spirals present in nature. So, I decided to make the Snail Hat.
It's really cute, and it's going to be really really warm. It's made with Cascade Pastaza (a 50/50 llama/wool blend) held double to make it a bulky size yarn. Really quick that way too.
So then I decided that I had to start another assignment (but not until the socks had been finished). Ancient Runes listed it's assignment as something based off a Muggle or wizard fairy tale, or something with a rune or monogram. So I got creative, in hopes that it'll get me bonus points. I pulled out some Fleece Artist Trail Sock yarn, in "Hercules" (there was a whole other sock idea for this yarn based on the myth of Hercules, that I was told wouldn't count because myths don't count as fairy tales, but legends do - weird). After looking through my stitch dictionaries, and sock books, and most of the 100+ pages of sock patterns on Ravelry, an idea came to me. And this sock, after much toil and rippage, is the result:
Now for the story of the Hi-Ho socks. Based on "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves". The pattern is called "Crystalline", which I thought appropriate for mining of jewels. The colorway fits too - the dark background of the depths of the mine with flashes of color that represent the different jewels in the mines. Beads to add sparkle for the jewelled effect. I'm pretty pleased with my story telling ability on this one.
This sock would probably be finished if I hadn't had to rip it out 3 times. Twice because of the beading - I didn't like the beads I used the first time, and didn't like the pattern I was using the second - and once because I screwed up the heel flap. The cables on the sides were supposed to be split for the heel flap - 3 stitches from each getting worked in. I didn't do that first time around, and failed to notice until I started picking up the gusset stitches.
See? Bad Annie. Pay attention! So I ripped out the heel and reknit it correctly yesterday.
Yay I followed the pattern correctly! Seriously, I think I'm going for a record on the number of idiotic mistakes I've made on this sock. And I'm not done yet. I've discontinued the beading for the top of the foot, if you were wondering, I don't think it would feel very nice in shoes.
Also HP related, but not sure if I'll use it for an assignment yet, probably will though, just need to figure out which one it'll work for, is this book scarf.
Looks nice right? Just wait, this is a new trick for me, double knitting. Ready?
See the other side? It's the negative, isn't that so cool? So sad that something as simple as knitting gets me this excited. But come on, you have to admit that's pretty cool, both sides get knit at the same time, it's crazy.
In response to a comment left on the last post, I am a trainer, and I am very good taping things like fingers and cuts and what not. However, in the sport of knitting, tape and band aid type-things interfere with performance. The adhesive tends to catch little individual fibers in the yarn, and that means that the yarn doesn't slide smoothly over the finger, which impedes speed, which leads to lower output. This is unacceptable. So bandaids are out.
I am happy to report that my finger is finally healed enough that I could start to work on the sweater again.
It doesn't look much different than the last photo, but it now measures 11 inches instead of 7.5. Woohoo.
I really didn't feel like I had gotten much knitting done this week, but when I sat down to think about what I had to photo and talk about for a blog, I realized I had a bunch. Will probably blog again later this week - I'm writing this as I wait for the arrival of the kiddos, and I'm sure that they'll do something spectacularly cute that I'll have to photograph and share.
