Knitting Update!

So, I finally decided to frog my evil shawl.

Here's the story of the evil shawl, for background:
I am mad about this pattern, hence the name 'evil shawl'. I purchased this pattern at a yarn store in scituate MA with my aunt; the pattern was written by the owner of the store. I was originally told that this was "an easy one skien project," and that La Boheme would work even better than the Kidsilk Haze it was meant for. Not so. A good ways in, my aunt was looking at my progress and said "this seems like this is way to wide to work on one skein. Weird. If I didn' t trust that store so much, I'd think this was a mistake" Now I'm over half way into my second skein, and it's still less than a foot long. The yarn (Fiesta's La Boheme) drives me crazy. The color way, poppies, is a beautiful rich red and purple, and my original goal was to have a nice shawl I could wear to brighten up one of my many black dresses. I know that once it's done I'll wear it a lot - that's how I originally justified spending so much on a single skein of yarn! I ended up purchasing two more skeins, and the thought of spending any MORE money on a project I'm not enjoying is not appealing. So I decided to frog it. The yarn has been rewound, and is destined for better things. For this shawl[R], in fact, which looks even more like what I'd wanted in the first place! (Plus, I think it really *is* a one skein shawl, and the pattern writer even mentioned La Boheme as an alternative yarn!) And we all frogged (and planned) happily ever after....at least, happily until I get the size 15 needles I need and start working with this infernal yarn again!

After finishing frogging/rewinding (which was infuriating itself) I needed something to knit while watching Gossip Girl. Almost all of my next projects either require new needles or lots of mental energy, so I decided to start knitting a Garter Mug Cozy from this year's Interweave Holiday Knits. I decided to take the advice of (), from Ravelry, and I am doing the first two stitches on either side of bo in stockinette. I'm using some TLC Ultra Soft from who knows when. The name doesn't lie, it's ultrasoft. It was a tossup between the TLC and some more Wool Ease. In theory, this could get tea spilled on it, so I figured 100% machine wash with (hopefully) less chance of pilling was a better choice. After working on socks for so long, I forgot how frustrating larger gague bamboo dpns can be. The frustrating needles combined with the frustrating tendency of this yarn to split is making this a less than perfect knit, but it's still nice and easy.

I'm going to go listen to the rest of my book-on-mp3 and do some more knitting. Later!