Assorted Knitting Woes and a Gothic Needle Case

Slow going in knit-land this week. I had to do a lot of ripping back, had some other miscellaneous goofs, and some knitting-related sewing distractions.

I had to rip out my Earl Grey Socks last week and start over because I discovered they were too small to fit on Matt's foot. There was some time lapse on that project, because I was sulking over needing to re-do it. I'm now back to where I was before the ripping commenced, but I discovered this morning (with much hilarity) that I am apparently completely and utterly unable to read patterns. I apparently managed to knit an entire repeat of the sock, checking the directions after every row, not once but twice with the incorrect number of repeats. I've decided at this point to consider it more of a knock-off. The Pawn Grey sock, maybe? Either way, now that I have figured out the pattern and it seems to be a more suitable size it's chugging along nicely.

I also had to frog about 1/3 of the hat I'm designing...twice. It, too, was coming along nicely. I was almost done, when I discovered that the bind-off I had chosen was causing the edge to be all scalloped and ruffly.
This would be one thing if I were, perhaps, designing a baby bonnet for sunny days at the beach. However, the days I plan to wear this hat aren't sunny, and I'm not an infant. Clearly a different bind-off is called for. Ok, frog number 1. I chose a new, less frilly cast-off and went on my merry way. I actually finished the hat this time, and plopped it on my head to see how it looked.

Oh dear. The hat atop my head was rather preposterously huge, with a wide flapping brim. If the yarn had been metallic, one might have been tempted to call it the long lost Golden Helmet of Mambrino. That wouldn't do. This required more serious ripping. I ripped back several inches, and changed my increase strategy. It's almost done once again, but I'm undecided about whether it's still too big. It may need to be ripped back once again.

Next on the list was the chuppah. I set out to work on it Tuesday during House as usual. Lo and behold, the chuppah was...nowhere to be found. I wasn't terribly worried, since we had just gone on a big house-cleaning spree and most things weren't where I expected them to be (i.e. not strewn about the house). So, while the chuppah was on hiatus, I worked on other things until it decided to show up. I discovered it today, folded neatly in a drawer while I was looking for needles and thread. Figures. Hopefully progress on that will resume this week.

Our internet was out for much of today, so I decided to be resourceful and tackle a problem I've been having lately. Since much of my knitting as of late has involved socks and gloves, I've amassed quite the collection of small double pointed needles. It's frustrating to go hunting for them in my large needle case, and I often wish I had a case dedicated just to DPNs and small knitting tools. So, today I whipped up a little needle case with a pouch for other oft-used items out of some scraps I had laying about. I think it came out rather nicely!

Since I wanted to have a pouch for larger items, this particular case folds up instead of rolling. (Excuse the dark photos and stray threads...these photos were taken with the case hot off the sewing machine and I was too excited to set up for amazing photos)
Undoing the button and folding back the left side reveals the zippered pouch for stitch markers, darning needles, etc.

If you peek inside the zippered pouch, you'll see the red lining poking out. I am a huge sucker for things that are colored inside, especially if the inside color is different from the outside color!
Finally, a bunch of little pockets for DPNs both short and long. I think the longest ones here are about 7", so that gives you an idea of how small this case actually is. There's also a flap at the top to keep needles from falling out if I shake the case upside down.