Knitting and Tension

Well, it took me long enough, but here is the finished image for the Edinburgh hat. I have yet to take a finished photo of the Draco Gloves/Mittens with Attitude because it is rather hard to operate a camera while photographing both of one's hands. They're just boring sitting on a table.

And as soon as I get back to the US, I am totally getting a foam head. I make so many hats, and I have no really way of modeling them except for my own head, and you know what? It's not that pretty, through an unfortunate combination of genetics and sheer laziness.

Currently on the needles I have what I call the Medusa Shawl, which is based loosely on the Mistake Rib Scarf I saw on Crazy Aunt Purl I say loosely because I am apparently incapable of counting for even a k2,p2 rib pattern. But the effect is cool. The yarn is Italian (I can't remember the name of it off the top of my head; it's such a pain having to come to the library to use the internet. I've been spoiled by the high speed in the dorm room), mostly cotton, an a lovely colorway of blue, yellow, and lime. It's really cool because as I knit, the colors pool to form a cross between argyle and plaid. You can see overlapping diamond outlines forming. I'm about 1/3 finished with it. I call it the Medusa scarf because of the mistakes--it appears that both the colors and the ribs are winding around like snakes. Not as drastic as cables, mind you, but if you look closely you can get that impression.

We went to a chocolate festival this morning at Santa Croce, but I found myself unable to enjoy it. Occasionally, I'll wake up and just have a day where I can't smile. I just felt really anxious the entire time we were there, and the chocolates I spent 6 euro on were terrible. They had rum in them, even though there was no label or sign proclaiming such. I really don't like the taste of alcohol, so to me they tasted like chocolate flavored nail polish remover. When I'm feeling better I might go back to try to find something, but today was just not the day for it, and I'm afraid I might have ruined it Alice and another mutual friend from class who tagged along.

Italy and I are not getting along so well. I keep trying to tell myself that the reason I came here was BECAUSE of the cultural differences, but I feel tense and uncomfortable no matter where I go. I'm hoping that tomorrow will be better. I want to walk to this huge park on the west side of the city, just to find it, because on Tuesdays they're supposed to have a huge market with lots of textiles and yarn. Time for a little craft shopping. I found out about both the market and the park from Ravelry, where I joined the kn.it (knitters in Italy) group specifically for this trip.

For now though, I'll just breathe deep and try not to think about Edinburgh or Montreal, where I'd so much rather be.