As promised, I have knitting to show you after our long day yesterday. Both kids competed in the regional National History Day so we were there from 9 am to 5 pm. The girl is moving on to state and is quite happy, the boy is not moving on but doesn’t mind too much because it means he can stop working on it and stressing out about it! So yes, lots and lots of knitting time but it’s not the Because I Love You Wrap. I did start that shawl, and I’m loving my yarn choice so far. It’s going to be quite lovely. This was knit with size 6 needles, as the pattern recommends. But it was too loosey-goosey for me so I frogged that and started over with 5s, and I like it much better. I learned how to do picots and those are pretty darn nifty. But guys, there’s a trick in this pattern that I didn’t discover until I started knitting. When you start the first garter stitch stripe, you do the first three stitches in the other color and then pick up the stripe color. Well, that left a big stupid hole in my knitting! That irritated me so I frogged back (and frogging picots are interesting) to before the stripe. A bit of investigating showed another Raveler recommending the intarsia technique of twisting the yarns at that point. I’ve never done intarsia but I’ve carried yarns up the side of my knitting; is the twisting the same as that? I’ll do more investigating before going back to knitting this but I’d love any advice you have!

After that rough beginning on Friday, I knew it wasn’t a good travel knitting project, so instead I cast on Karin Michele’s newest pattern, the Duality hat. It’s a classic ribbed beanie but with broken rib for the body, and the decreases are written so well! I love how she managed to carry the broken rib pattern all the way up. Best of all, it’s free through March 7th, so move quick, knitters! I got it almost completely done at the competition, stopped only because I forgot to bring my DPNs with me, so the last six rounds were done at home. I love love love this hat. I used Malabrigo Rios (the recommended yarn) in color Teal Feather, and knit to 8.25″ before decreasing. I think it’s the perfect amount of slouch and I’ll definitely be knitting this pattern again.

Now we have a quiet Sunday at home and I feel brave enough to tackle my shawl again. Wish me luck with my yarn-twisting!