I had an exciting parcel pushed through my letter box yesterday morning. I'd ordered some new knitting needles from a seller on eBay; 9mm bamboo DPNs and 16" circular, for the express purpose of knitting the Free Rapunzel! hat from Tiny Owl Knits, which was added to my YoP list earlier in the year.
I've had the yarn in my stash for a while, having bought four balls of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky from a friend who was destashing back in August.
I resisted all morning, but as soon as I found myself sitting down on the sofa to watch the Barbarians rugby game yesterday afternoon, I couldn't resist digging the yarn out and getting started!
Lots of firsts for me in this pattern:
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| First time knitting cables - I didn't have a cable needle so I used one of the DPNs instead, which mostly worked ok |
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| First time picking up stitches to knit |
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| First time knitting stockinette in the round |
Switching to the DPNs was tricky, as I had to keep moving the stitches about to get the crown decreases in the right place and prevent my stitch markers from falling off the ends. I did the cable band while watching rugby, and accompanied the lovely stockinette portion (have I mentioned how much I loved knitting stockinette in the round?) with two episodes of The Walking Dead season 2. I would have stayed up all night to knit the braids too, but having arranged to go out for a tromp around the countryside this morning, I decided to leave it till later.
I ran out of yarn from my first ball while in the middle of my decreases, so I used the magic knot tutorial that Evelyn linked to the other day to join my second ball. Genius! It worked like a dream.
I'll be back tomorrow with the photos from my countryside tromp - there were herds of alpacas!
