A Weekend With New Friends and Old Friends

I so look forward to weekends lately. I can sit up in my office and just devote myself to whichever project is calling my name. This weekend, at least 4 different projects spoke to me the loudest. Two I can talk about, two will have to remain nameless until a gifting experience occurs.

Saturday I finished my Candy Color Twisted Rib hat.

The colors are much more vivid and true in this picture. The hat itself turned out to be a big, soft, loose thing -- perfect for me because I am always catching my hair ties and barrettes in the tight and clingy kind. This Candy Color yarn is definitely not very elastic, so if I were to do it again I would probably do a few less stitches than I did. At first I thought it was a waste of time ribbing this stuff, now I sort of like the subtle effect the ribbing has. I am working on a scarf design now that will complement the hat because I like the feel of the yarn. This stuff is definitely not the most fun stuff in the world to work with, but it is so soft that it's worth the frustration of being neat when working with it. John kept coming up and feeling it. For the first time ever he asked me if I would make him a pullover -- out of this stuff. While I was flattered by the request, I don't think I could make a whole sweater with it -- especially not a whole man-sized sweater. But now I am going to keep my eye out for something that feels as nice!

I also fell in love with Noro Silk Garden Yarn. What a treat to work with! The yarn almost glows. With the beginning of February fast approaching I decided that if I was going to get another sweater finished in time to enjoy this year, I had better get it started. The sweater is the Raglan Sweater with Cable Detail out of the Debbie Bliss Noro #1 book.

The colorway is #7 -- I think the picture actually does do the colors justice, although you can't see the subtle, luminous quality of the yarn very well. It was much more exciting for me to watch how the colors came out in the yarn than the football game. If you want to see the "cable detail" here it is:

But the football game was a good time, too!. The husband is totally into his home theatre (which I refer to as "the Den of Great Manliness") -- and he was particularly excited about this game because a) it was being broadcast in HD and b) he just got his brand-new DILA projector (he had one before this but it wasn't as bright and the optics weren't quite as good). Because the projector is so much brighter, we could actually have a lot of ambient light in the room -- so I could see to knit and everyone else could watch the game. John also got to show off his brand-new theatre-style popcorn popper (a small version of what you used to be able to find at the movie theatre) and his Hot Diggity Dogger -- you haven't lived until you''ve had a hot dog made in your own "hot dog popper"!