Work-In-Progress Wednesday #7

... a day late, but I have two new WIPs I still wanted to share. However, first you need to check out this bit of awesomeness:

My Fiasco likes zombies and I'm (obviously) a fan of knitting and when my future-father-in-law saw this magnet, he thought of us and bought it for me on a whim. How perfectly sweet is that, right? I am marrying into such a great family! :) Now, onto the knitting.

Naughty Lace (named so because that's how I hear the name of the yarn in my head):

Cephalopod Yarns Nautilace, colorway Trigger Fish

I finally finally finally started that cowl I had you guys help me decide on making. I was delayed because I couldn't figure out how to actually purchase the pattern (which is Thundercloud Cowl by Snowden Becker) because the link wasn't working. Then I had to go buy some beads. Then I had to wait to print the pattern out because our printer was busted. Then I had to pre-string 360 of those beads (yup). Then I just procrastinated because I hate provisional cast-ons.

BUT! Then I had this brainwave: I don't have to really do a provisional cast on!! The TechKnitter blog has a great post on how to do this kind of cast on, but the idea is basically that you knit with waste yarn for a few rows and then start knitting the pattern with your project yarn. When you're done, you snip the waste yarn just before the "real" knitting begins and unravel that row stitch by stitch, catching each live stitch on your needle as you go. Then you can join those stitches to the other end relatively seamlessly. It's so simple and much less intimidating for me than fiddling with crochet hooks or a two-needle twisty weird cast on. Sometimes you just want to cast on and go and deal with issues later. :)

Summer Holiday Socks:

The Verdant Gryphon Eidos, colorway Parzival

I started a pair of my Ribby Holiday Socks as my celebrate-the-end-of-summer, easy-pick-me-up, knit-while-I-read-boring-papers project. I love them so far. The colorway involves every single color I love. This is my first time knitting with Eidos and I like it very much, although I did go down a needle size from my much loved and slightly thicker STR yarn. The fabric is working out nicely.

That's all I have for you this week. I worked on My Own Fiasco socks a bit, as well, but I don't have a new photo for you. I'm just about at the heel on those so they are moving along well, too. Now to catch up on all the WIP Wednesday fun that I missed...