Happy Halloween!

Well, I'll wait until I have the pictures from yesterday to post the Halloween costume, but it came out really, really good. I'm exceptionally happy with it, especially since I did all my parts without a pattern. (Mom made the suit from a Simplicity sleeper pattern. I can't sew. But I did the tail and collar, and all the knitted bits.)

I need to photo the scarf, too. I've got it half done - actually more than half done, because I wanted 7" of ribbing on each side, and the one I was working was 5", and then I knitted for "just one more row" and suddenly it was 8". Ribbing - much faster than cabling.

Oh, and I learned a very exciting thing - it's called a "Norwegian purl" (.pdf from Interweave) - I'd never heard of it, but you hold the yarn in back and do a fancy little twisty thing and get a purl. I haven't decided if I'm going to replace my normal purling with it or not, but I'm practicing now - even if I decide it's not faster than regular purling, it'll be a good thing to know, like holding the yarn in your right hand so you can knit two colors at once.

Also learned to knit while walking. Did the cables and everything, so that was cool. It's really easier than I thought it would be - I knit at about half speed, but it is getting knitting and exercise done at the same time, so hey, I win. Plus it showed me that I can knit without looking, so I tried it in the car and hey, no carsickness! Now I'm actually looking forward to taking the plane to TX. (The motion sickness has gotten so bad that I have to wait until the Metro stops to look at the system map. Seriously, it's out of control.)

Next design idea: I want to knit a kimono style jacket. There's a pattern knit in a horrible yarn that costs an insane amount - and the only way to get this particular pattern is "free" with purchase of the yarn for the project. No pattern's worth $175, so I'm going to reverse-engineer the damned thing. And as long as I'm doing that, I'm going to make it better. It occurred to me that I can make a dolly sweater as proof of concept AND Christmas present, so that's my current plan. (Last year I made a really awsome doll for my daughter, and I'd like to start a tradition of giving her something handmade to wear every year. The doll, not the kid - the doll isn't in the habit of outgrowing all her clothes every five minutes.)