...Nevermind!

/Emily Litella

The last post was a picture of the materials I bought to make a seashell bag (like those popular hobo bags with the sequins and paillettes). I pre-strung all the seashells, but then I found that to be such a pain in the ass to knit with. The holes in the shells were just barely big enough to fit around the yarn (HPY laceweight in Thistle, by the way; I can't say enough good things about how beautiful their dye jobs are), so the yarn was getting all raggedy from the friction. The weight of all the shells was fairly heavy, and I was scared of the yarn breaking. I knit a few rows and gave up. I had originally wanted to do this and write up a pattern for the summer issue of Knitty, but I just gave up. Maybe I'll revisit it later this summer.

I did get a new project idea. For my birthday last year, I splurged on some Noro. I have four balls of Cash Iroha in colors that look decent together: 93, 94, 1, and 100. Originally I planned on integrating them into a shrug type of sweater, but I decided I didn't want stripes. Inspiration struck me last night, and I'm going to use 93 and 94 to make a hat. For my swatch last night (in the round, natch), I learned how to do the 2-handed stranded method and the Magic Loop method. I don't like Magic loop at all, but it's good to know it. I twist my stitches when knitting continental, so I have to get my buns over to Knitting Help to figure out what I'm doing wrong. The details of the hat will remain a secret until I'm finished.

I like keeping my design details secret, mostly because I'm scared someone will come along and knit whatever I've planned before I've even finished, and theirs will look 100x better than mine.