Duh.

My alternate title for this post was almost "dolt" as well. I feel like the summertime heat is getting to my brain a bit lately. This might explain why I haven't posted in 2+ weeks. How can it be August already? In my last post about the Iceland sweater I was complaining about not quite having enough yarn to finish, not wanting to buy more, and having to cast off early and just "make it work" (I think I was channeling Tim Gunn there. Maybe I should have actually channeled my own brain for once, because low and behold:

(image deleted)

Reaching into the stash for something unrelated procurred another ball of Cocoon. Duh. I shouldn't even say "the stash". It was the small bag of stuff by the sofa where materials for current projects are kept. Duh. I mean if I'm being honest here, when I "ran out" of yarn on that sweater, I didn't even bother looking for more and just assumed I was out. Duh. Clearly I cannot count.

SO, that said (and lest I beat a dead horse further), that sweater took me 8 balls exactly, and not 9 if any of you were thinking about doing it.

But it IS summertime, so one must take lemons and make lemonade (or in my case, balls of mohair into wooly sweaters and fuzzy cowls!)



Yeah, that's right, ANOTHER cowl. I wasn't about to let that gorgeous yarn go to waste or languish unloved in the stash, so I just knit it up jiffy quick during a two hour meeting last week. It's kind of like the xo uo cowl by Kate Sonnick (which in turn is based on a cowl from Urban Outfitters). I think I cast on 70 stitches, joined in the round on 13mm circulars and just knit in garter stitch until I ran out, so it was one ball, but more would have been better. Or maybe less cast on stitches --but i'll also be wearing it doubled up so it pretty much amounts to the same thing anyway.



Also in the "duh" category for me this week --



This hideous hat. Already frogged.

Now I've seen some cute versions of this hat on Ravelry, but this ain't one of 'em. See how cute these ones are!:


(taken from Nonnahs & Broadwayknits respectively...)

I like the forties flapper vibe it has going on --the pattern is Amber Daniel's just like a peasant cap.

I think the ones I've liked have been knit with sock yarn even. My version--knit with Manos, just too thick and too lumpy.



I also knit another hat unsucessfully with this exact same Manos, Julia's Jenny cloche. Clearly it is not the patterns here, it is definitely the thick & lumpy Manos. What's more annoying is that I even had to buy a THIRD ball to complete the band that goes around the hat.

So with these two precedents in mind, here is the most shocking thing I'm about to tell you: My love affair with Manos del Uruguay is over. It's OVER. Naturally I still appreciate and support this company and everything it stands for, but sadly we must part ways in terms of my ability to actually "make it work". Unless I find something that these three skeins of Emerald green Manos can really mesh with, I will never knit with it again.

Ok, this post is getting loooong. But I'm on vacation this week (i.e PACKING) so there's plenty more to come (like it or lump it, heh)