Finishing Gretel & Hemlock

Yum...

That's the sound of me, finishing Gretel. I LOVE this hat. It is slouchy. It is cabley. It is the most bestest beret in whole wide frakkin' world. I wove in all the ends, I caught an errant stitch that had somehow managed to escape from the tubular cast on and I wove it in the ribbing---in short, I actually did all the required finishing for this project. This is rare in Genuine_Land. However, I do not yet have a picture of me, wearing this frakkin' awesome beret. But, rest assured, I WILL get said picture, and post it.

Remember from that movie, Over the Hedge? You didn't see it? Well, one of tag-lines of the movie is about Spuddies, this brand of chips that come in a tube, like Pringles. The promotional line for Spuddies is, "Enough just isn't enough" and I've found that this is so with berets.

Look at this.

http://strandsofme.blogspot.com/2008/01/i-did-it.html

Isn't it beautiful?

Look at it again.

Don't you want to knit it?

In other news, I have decided that I will knit the Hemlock Ring Blanket, a revival of an old doily pattern by Jared Flood. It is here.

http://brooklyntweed.blogspot.com/2007/08/hemlock-ring-blanket.html

My LYS carries Cascade Ecological Wool. Here are my observations upon this yarn so far.

1. It comes in lovely, earthy, 'aren't-we-the-wonderful-savers-of-the-earth-and-past-traditions-which-didn't-demand-such-bright-shiny-colors" colors.

2. It's much more soft when you knit with it, than when you touch it in the skein.

3. If you're me, and trying to wrap your first center pull skein around a tube from Christmas wrapping, you end up with something that looks like a light, cream colored alien cocoon. With a ball trailing behind it, because this thing just got way too big, and I just wound the last, oh, 100-150 yards into a ball. THIS THING LOOKS CREEPY!

My LYS owner was an ANGEL. She took down numerous skeins of the Eco from the too-high shelf, she compared colors with me, STAYED OVERTIME without mentioning it, and ordered the extra skein that I would need for the blanket, because I just had to pick the color that she only had one skein of. She is one awesome lady, and if you're ever in WV, check out Market Street Yarn & Crafts. The selection is excellent, with stuff for crocheters, WEAVERS, and spinners. Commerical now over---but seriously, this place rocks.

Oh, and on a small note, even though I have used the supposedly corrected version of the Hemlock Ring from the rainey sister's blog, I am seriously screwed on row 35. I've already ripped out this @!&!! blanket 3 or 4 times now, at least the first 20-30 rows, and I'm heartily sick of it. I'm tinking back in the morning. Ugh. However, I still love the Eco, and I love the sophisticated, off-white color of the yarn.