Seasonally appropriate knitting

I finished Rhomylly's Marram hat on St. Patrick's Day. Being able to knit without fucking up is one big advantage to not getting drunk out of your mind on St. Patrick's Day. :) The following day, I frogged my Vernal Equinox shawl back to the last lifeline and put it back on the needles, so I could start the CORRECT chart (Clue 4). I worked on it over this Vernal Equinox weekend, particularly on Saturday morning while at my friends' house when they were chatting with an architect and I had nothing else to do. It's a pleasure to be knitting lace again. This chart has a very simple pattern with a short repeat, so it's not too taxing to the brain, and I feel like I'm making progress quickly. I am becoming very fond of the yarn color as time goes on, and this really is a lovely pattern. I still don't like the fact that the yarn is SO loosely spun, and so splitty as a result. I think that in future, I'll be more aware of that sort of thing. I didn't really know quite as much about yarn when I bought that stuff a year and a half ago.

Speaking of yarn, I'm really looking forward to Sanguine Gryphon's new releases! I hope they go on sale soon, AND that I don't forget about this and miss all the colors I like best. That happened with the last release. Their stuff is pretty pricey--$28/skein for most stuff, as far as I can tell. I think I'll stick with a single skein of sock yarn (they have the most yardage) to make a shawlette. Haruni, maybe? Oooh. Or Traveling Woman. Or something.

Hair today, gone tomorrow

My friend Rhomylly is undergoing chemo right now. She's a knitter herself, and has asked her fellow knitter friends to make hats for her, so that when she loses her hair (it's already getting brittle after her second dose), she can cover up with cute stuff. I volunteered to make one. I recently frogged a baby sweater I was working on: the baby is now too big for the size for which I bought the yarn, and I can't see myself getting back to the rather obnoxious pattern. The yarn is perfect for a chemo cap: a soft microfiber (Berocco Comfort DK). I selected grapey purple and screaming lime green to make a hat with a slip stitch color pattern, Marram. It's a lovely subtle pattern when you use subtle colors that are only slightly different from one another, but it's kind of funky and psychadelic when you use such bright and contrast-y yarns. Hopefully, it'll be nice and comfy and will cheer her up when she's feeling crappy.

The hat is simple to knit (so far), and it's a nice break from my shawls. I have to confess, I've been neglecting them. I don't want to rip out back to the last lifeline and then pick up all the stitches again on the Vernal Equinox (I did indeed skip a chart, damn it), and I apparently screwed something up on my Seascape that needs fixing, and gods, do I ever HATE undoing and fixing stuff in Kidsilk Haze! GAH! I love, love, love the way it knits up, but I think that in future, I will only do very, very simple lace in that kind of yarn. You know, the kind of stuff that has maybe a 12-stitch repeat that becomes rhythmic over time. I should make a point of fixing that up this week, though. One of the shawls, anyway.