In withdrawal

Here I am at my parents' house for the holidays. I should have knit a ton by now. I should have finished the chart I'm on. Alas, I have not knit a single stitch. Why? One of my damned Harmony Options tips I was using BROKE. Broke right off at the bottom. I flipped out. The only other circs I had in that size were my Denise Interchangeables. Unfortunately, they're incredibly blunt, with a really thick cable. This made it nigh impossible to pick up the stitches from my lifeline. I started getting a headache when I tried, and then I put it back in my knitting bag.

I already needed to place a Knitpicks order to replace the size 6s I lost, and to get some longer cables (for Magic Loop), but now I need a new set of size 5 tips as well. *sigh*

I think I might have to start a quick small project in the meantime when I get back to my place. Maybe that "string of pearls" style necklace I wanted to make. It's been a bit depressing having NO knitting to do. At least I've had The Lord of the Rings to keep me company, while my mom and sister and sister's roommate play Wii all day and my dad works. Tonight, though, I'll be coming home, and I can knit and watch whatever movies I want for as long as I want. Yay, vacation!

Big bright green knitting machine

I started Clue 4 yesterday! This one seems to go faster from repeat to repeat since the repeats are much shorter than they were on the third chart, but now the rows themselves are twice as long! I can only do about one row on my morning bus ride! Still, I'm taking a nice LONG vacation--about a week and a half--around Christmas time, so I'll have plenty of other time to work on it. I still don't much like the yarn. SOOO SPLITTY. And with yarn this thin, if it splits and I don't catch and fix it, it's almost certainly going to rip in the blocking. This makes me nervous. I'm not going to get stuff from Newton's Yarn Country again, I think. I'll stick with DNBY for my cheap-ass yarn, thankyouverymuch.

I was thinking, "Hey, if I really love this shawl but hate the yarn, maybe I should give it a second go with a nicer yarn afterwards." But...no. I can't do that. There are too many other beautiful things to knit. I want to try Damask, and Echo Flower, and Shipwreck, and Haruni, and one of the EZ 100th Anniversary ones. At least. And that's just SHAWLS. I also want to finish that damned pair of socks hibernating in my drawer (NO MORE SOCKS AFTER THAT unless they're kilt hose for my man), and I do eventually want to knit a sweater. And other odds and ends.

Shiny of the day: Sanguine Gryphon has their latest yarns up for display, though they aren't yet up for sale. You can see them on their blog. Oh my. *swoon* They are GORGEOUS. Must have.

I think that at some point, I'm going to take a break from knitting on this VE shawl and use that sparkly brown yarn I got to do something new. I found a pattern for a cute necklace. Basically, it's three strands of i-cord, all attached at each end to a tab that has buttons and a buttonhole to fasten them together into a circle. You wear it by giving the whole thing a twist to twist the cords together, and fastening it behind your neck. I think it'll be adorable in the sparkly stuff!

Join us or die!

I'd put aside my knitting (still working away at the Vernal Equinox shawl) for a few days because 1) I was super-busy, and 2) I needed to look up the Russian join technique while I was at home and had time to do it. I did so this evening. I was a little worried because of the loosely plied 2-ply yarn I'm using--I wasn't sure it would work. It seems to be holding fast, though, which is great! It looks so much better than weaving in ends in such an open pattern, IMO. So, yay! New thing learned! I only did a few rows this evening, because I want to be able to enjoy my scotch and Raiders of the Lost Ark, but now I'll be able to work on it on the bus again. I just hope it doesn't rain again tomorrow, so I can bring my knitting bag to work without worrying about it getting wet.

You know, I wish my family would appreciate knitted gifts. I'd love to have Christmas knitting to do...

ETA: This is the tutorial I used to learn the Russian join.