Year of Projects update 6th January

I had hoped that by today I would have some lovely photos of blocked and finished projects to share. After all, it's been at least a week since I cast off a number of my YoP projects. Sadly, there hasn't been a lot of time spare time this week. New Years Day was taken up with our now traditional (we've done it two years in a row, that makes it a tradition, right?) trip to Kew Gardens and I was far too exhausted from all the walking around to do an extensive pinning out session when we got back. I've been too tired or busy in the evenings to get it done, and yesterday I had to take a trip up to Northampton to try on my wedding dress, which meant I lost most of the productive hours in the afternoon!

I am hoping to get Momijigari on the blocking board today at the very least.

What I can show you is pictures of my two new projects from the list! I posted about my pattern ideas for some of the skeins on the list a couple of weeks ago, and this week I cast two of them on.

First up, this gorgeous skein of Skein Queen Squash was paired up with the Crest of a Wave Baktus pattern.

I was very excited to see the skein once it had been wound into a cake. Look at those colours! One thing I realised once I had the yarn on the swift was how short the colour changes are. I really had no idea how it would knit up, so it was with some trepidation that I cast on and started knitting. I needn't have worried!

It's knitting up a treat! Garter stitch was definitely a good choice for this yarn. It's so bright and cheerful, I just know I am going to love the finished scarf.

The other project I decided to start was the Ishbel Beret in my lovely pink Knit Picks Capretta. In a complete contrast to the joy of knitting the baktus, this hat has caused me nothing but trouble.

First up, I had issues with the provisional cast on. I've done it before, and had no issues. I've even done it knitting in the round! But for some reason I had a real problem casting on and then knitting 108 stitches. I tried twice, then gave up in disgust. I decided to knit the hem flat, and leave myself enough of a tail to sew the hem closed once the hat was finished, rather than knit the hem together as I go.

Terrible, terrible iPhone photo. Sorry.

I was almost done with the third repeat of the vine pattern when I realised..... I was doing it wrong. You're only meant to repeat rows 3-10. I'd repeated 1-10. There was nothing for it but to rip back to the hem and start over.

Luckily, the yarn held up to being frogged pretty well, and I had no trouble at all stopping at the final knit row of the hem and getting all my live stitches back on the needle. I powered through the first repeat, until I got to row 8 and realised that yet again, I had made a mistake. This time I'd forgotten to move my stitch marker on row 7, so I'd knit row 8 in the wrong place. So now I am methodically tinking back the last row I knit so I can carry on.

It's funny, isn't it, how two different projects become two completely different knitting experiences.