So What Have I Been Up To?

A. Sorting and packing everything I own to move to a foreign country.
B. Knitting down the WIP list.
C. Furiously planning and making things for my wedding.
D. Moving around a lot to visit friends and family.
E. Dealing with all kinds of paperwork due to graduation, etc.
F. All of the above.

Yeah. F. That one. It's been wild.

A Wide Triangle

In my last post, I talked about my new book and how I just HAD to cast on for A Wide Triangle. It's easy and gorgeous. I got three strands of 22 beads each, for a total of 66 beads. The pattern calls for 64 beads, but with the center bead, that is actually 65. So I have one extra bead. I'm most of the way through, and I've knit it mostly in movie theaters or watching movies with friends the past couple days. As such, there are definitely a couple of mistakes in the edging, including not decreasing and therefore adding a couple of stitches. This creates extra decrease repeats later. Enough to place another bead. Great, I have 66 beads, it's all good.

Wait, I have only 14 left, I should have 15. I only have 65 beads. What the heck. I must have dropped one while stringing. I thought I did, but didn't find it right away, and didn't think I needed all of them so didn't count. Which means that of course, I would have to use that extra bead, right? D'oh!

I shall now be extensively searching the couch where I was stringing the beads in hopes of finding the errant bead. They're pretty big wooden beads too, so it shouldn't be that hard to find. Or so I'd like to hope.

Here are some WIP photos, and maybe FO photos later today if I can find the bead.

Close-up of center point of triangle.

I also need to photograph all the projects that have wound their way out of the woodwork during the unpacking/packing extravaganza. I have three blankets I've given family members that have never been photographed, but I can only find one. I'm quite pleased with the other two, so I'm hoping to find them. The real question is, when I put them into Ravelry, does each of the 13 washcloths using the same pattern get its own project title, or should I just count them all as "Tunisian Crochet Washcloths"?

Bad Dye Job

I finished all the white on the Peasantry, so the plan was to dye the yarn and beads black for the edging and embroidery. Beads are black. Yarn is....not. It did not want to take the dye. It also tangled horribly, so I ended up tossing it. This is what I got:

I'm currently on a pullover jag. Well, a finishing stuff jag, and I have four pullovers that are in need of finishing. Rogue has not been touched yet, though I now have the correct yarn for it and can finish it, once I get going. Blaze has the sleeves attached, about five inches to go and only one skein left. I'm fairly certain I need at least two. Crap. The Lace Rib Raglan has been taken back apart:

I'm bringing the neckline up about two inches which will bring the shoulders in a bit more than an inch on each side, which will make it better. The main pieces of Peasantry (sleeves, front, back) are crocheted and seamed, it just needs edging, buttons, and embroidery. It will look like this:

But now looks like this, with dog because she wouldn't leave the sweater alone:

And I need to try to buy matching black yarn, due to the dyeing fiasco. I cooked it forever, put a whole bunch of dye in, but the yarn simply did not want to color. The wooden beads are dyed, but the yarn is purple-y. So I need to purchase a cheap similar yarn, probably Caron Simply Soft in black to finish it off. Luckily, I found a couple full skeins of Red Heart from my stadium blanket that I can return to get the black yarn and some wooden beads to make one of the items on my "Must Do ASAP" list. I have two shawls and three socks that I want to make NOW, and a few other things that I want to do before I go, like spin all the fur I have. I'm trying to pare down what I'm going to take, really I am, but there's just so much!

My next two must-do projects are both from my new amazingly awesome book Victorian Lace Today. I really want to do the Lady's Circular Cape with my Yubina Silk/Cashmere cobweb weight yarn, but I need a 1 or 1.5 Addi for that.

Then I want to make "A Wide Triangle", but that's what I need the wooden beads for. I also can't figure out which of my two colors of Knit Picks Shadow I want to use. I'm going to go with a brown and the wooden beads, because I really like it. I could use my blue, but I'm pretty sure I want one of the browns. Which one? The lighter is very similar to the photographed one, but the dark one is also nice:

I'm also looking for sweater vests to wear over button down shirts while I'm teaching. I'm thinking my wardrobe will consist of white button down shirts, dark pants or skirts, and a cute sweater vest. Now I just need to start knitting. Any recommendations for either vests or skirts that would be work-appropriate?