Socks and Boxes

I've been knitting more lately, but I realized that I haven't really finished any major projects in a months. I think the reason why is because all my projects are on # 3 or #5 needles and are more complicated than anything I've done before. I started the Baudelaire socks, and am using the Filatura di Crosa Zarina yarn. The color is actually more deep red. This is the first sock I've done, but I have done fingerless gloves before, so that's similar. I've also been making progress on the Lotus Blossom tank. I have one more repeat of the lace, then stockinette, which will go faster. It'll be done in time for the middle of winter. I am using Bamboo yarn, which I really like. It's silky and I like the texture. The lace is also complicated enough so it doesn't get boring. I really hope this pattern fits. Here is also a picture of my cat. He likes to get inside boxes and bite them. There are bite marks all around the edges of any box he can get a hold of. I've never had a cat who liked to bite so much, and at least he isn't biting me.

Booga Bag Done

Here is my finished Booga Bag. I used Noro Kureyon and Patons merino wool, which felt differently. The Patons was done the first time I took the bag out of the washing machine, but after two times, the Kureyon still has stitch definition. I like how it turned out, except I would have made it a little bigger and the handles longer. I don't know what the ratio of how much it shrinks is, and I didn't want to make it enormous if i wouldn't shrink much. Other than that, I like how it turned out. I wanted to have a sort of stained glass effect, and it seems like it worked.

The Most Challenging Sweater

I started Demi from the book, Vintage Knits by Rowan. It is easily the most complicated project I've done so far. But I'm having more problems with Shedir and the Bonita shirt from Interweave. The only problem so far with Demi, is that some of the purls are in the wrong places, but the fabric is dark and I didn't want to start over. For some reason, it always seems to take me a few rows to get the hang of the pattern. One problem was that I wasn't using some way to mark the rows or what I just did. Then I remembered highlighters. It seems dumb that I forgot about using them.
So far, with the Demi pattern I can see what the difference between the knit stitch and knit in the back loop stitch. It really stands out more when you knit through the back loop. I'm using Rowan Yorkshire Tweed and it's fairly dark, so the pattern would be really hard to see, but the pattern really pops it out. The only thing is that every single stitch for the entire sweater is part of a chart, so it will take a long time. Shedir is going okay and I decided to knit through the back loop on that also, for the same reason.

Felting is Hard

I've been felting lately. I finished and felted Booga Bag, but I'm not sure how much I like it. I'm going to post pictures of that later, maybe after I've lined it. This is Patons SWS felted twice, which still has a lot of stitch defintion, but feels felted. I was going to put a zipper in it, but I think it's too thick. That's what happened to me before, where once the stitch definition of the fabric disappeared, the bag was ridiculously thick. It was literally and inch thick. I don't think I like felting that much, because it never works out how I want it to. I've been wanting to make Nicky Epstein's Floral Felted bag for a while now, but I don't want to put all the work into the intarsia, just to have it ruined during felting. Maybe using thinner yarn works out better, though.