Because I wanna

I was having one of my punk rock tantrums this weekend. You know, like the Hives song:

"Do what I want cause I can and if I don't because I wanna!"

("Hate to say I told you so...ALRIGHT!")

So I stuck my wallet, keys, pepper spray (can never be too careful), and Blackberry in my pocket, grabbed my latest small project (in a Daiso bento bag, no less) and headed for the woods.

Saturday, I got deep under the influence of one of Katie's cappucinos and Rachel's Blue Chair jam at Pizzaiolo, so I jittered my way into Article Pract to work it off. While I was there, I picked up the Carmen pattern Kristine made, a pair of metal size 3 sock needles for travel, a 40" size 10.5 Crystal Palace Daisy needle, and 2 2oz. bundles of Kristine's BFL in her "Reyes" colorway. I decided to try that project I mentioned in the previous post, inspired by the Morehouse Merino scarf and shawl patterns.

So, my little Bento bag held the BFL roving, the little rosewood faux-Turkish spindle I got at Stitches West, and my new Daisy needles. Once I spun up a spindleful, I popped off the whorl-arms from the spindle shaft (which makes an excellent thread bobbin!), and cast on three stitches. In garter stitch, I slipped the selvedge stitch and did a yo at the beginning of every row, until I felt it was long enough, then I did a slip selvedge, yo, k2tog, psso at the beginning of the next row, k to end. The next row I did a slip selvedge, yo, k to end as usual for what will be a stole knit on the bias.

When I knit up the entire spindleful, I spin a new spindleful, and do a join between the end of the working yarn and the beginning of the yarn on the spindle. It seems to be working very well.

My only difficulty is with the Daisy needle. It's a nice, smooth plastic needle, but the cable is incredibly stiff and in a rigid coil, like wire. I have to wrestle with it every time I get to the end of a row. I'm hoping I can soften it a little in hot water or something.