Hot off, warm off and on the needles

 I tried taking photos of the jacket (DROPS Medieval, from Ravelry) on the ground, but I had to resort to using the tripod and myself as a model. It's great being able to use the phone as a remote - it's several cameras back since I actually had such a thing as an old-fashioned cable remote.

It was meant to have three buttons, and I had three lovely antique silver ones. But when I ripped part of the front, I forgot the middle buttonhole when I knitted it back up again - and since I had two antique brass ones, I settled for that. It looks better in motion, because the draped panels have a lovely swing to them.

Once that was finished, I picked up a cowl kit I bought before Christmas last year. It's an Irish yarn, and called for an 8mm circular needle which wasn't something I possessed, so I had to order one before I could start. It's going to be lovely and cosy in the colder weather. 

After that, I started a scarf for C, in a lovely grey alpaca which I was tempted to keep for myself. I think there are going to be two balls left, so I might get gloves out of it, anyway.

Being DK, it was a nice step-down from the Aran/worsted of the previous two projects - getting me ready for some socks which are my next project. I've already knitted 6 tension samples, as the suggested needle size was 2.5 mm, but with instructions to knit to gauge. Well, despite the fact that, a very rare event, I had actually bought the yarn the pattern was written for, I had to knit samples on 2.5mm  2.75mm, 3 mm, 3.25 mm and finally 3.5mm gave me the right tension. Possibly because it's an intarsia design of daisies...it leaves me feeling slightly anxious that I will have put a lot of work into the socks and they won't fit. Fingers crossed - maybe that should be toes. Again, I had to go out and buy needles because I didn't have double-pointed ones in either 3.25 or 3.5. Plenty of smaller ones, thanks to the lovely knitted bird book from Lorraine :D.